Medical Profession Celebrates Progress for Patients

The Council of Medical Colleges in New Zealand (CMC) is pleased that the Government made changes to the Therapeutic Products Bill in response to our Open Letter. Although the CMC preference was to put the ban into legislation, there is now the opportunity for the new regulator to ban harmful Direct to Consumer Advertising of Prescription Medicines (DTCA-PM).

The CMC Open Letter on DTCA-PM was signed by an extraordinary range of senior national and international academics, unions, consumer advocacy groups, and leading medical experts.

“Banning DTCA-PM is a simple change that will reduce harm to patients, reduce costs to the health system, and have a significant influence on the health impacts on climate change by reducing unnecessary prescribing” says Dr Samantha Murton, Chair of CMC.

“We are buoyed by the historic cross-party consensus for banning advertising of prescription medicines and look forward to working with the regulator to put this into action.”

“Thank all those who signed our open letter – the Government listened, the legislation was changed due to our efforts and you can be proud of your contribution.

“Unfortunately, this isn’t done and dusted. We would have preferred this to be settled this week but we will continue to work with officials to ban DTCA-PM through regulations.

“We encourage anyone who wishes to add their support and keep up to date with our progress to do so by contacting enquiries@cmc.org.nz,” Dr Murton said.

The Therapeutic Products Bill passed the Third Reading in Parliament this week.