Pharmaceutical companies in the European Union are currently prohibited from advertising prescription drugs directly to the public, however Article 88 of DG Enterprise’s proposed draft of the EU Pharmaceuticals relaxes the ban for three diseases: diabetes, asthma and respiratory diseases, HIV/AIDS.
Opponents of the proposal argue that direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) leads to unsustainable health care spending and may have other negative effects for patients.
In contrast, its proponents argue that individuals have a fundamental right to information and it is a breach of human rights to censor information on prescription drugs, regardless of the source.
