§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services on how many occasions pharmaceutical companies have committed an offence under the Medicines Act 1968 of issuing false or misleading advertisements; and in each case what action was taken by his Department or by any other body.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeAll suspected infringements of the Medicines Act by way of false or misleading advertisements that are uncovered by, or reported to, the Department are investigated by officials. Frequently the transgressions are minor and speedily rectified by a direct approach to the company concerned or through the administering committee of a trade association's code of practice. The number and nature of these infringements could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. In the past two years the Department has taken two successful prosecutions involving advertising offences committed under the Act.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to the answer of 12 July, Official Report, c. 327, what forms of checking have been carried out by his officials which have led him to be satisfied that the vast majority of the many thousands of advertisements issued each year comply with the required high standard of factual accuracy.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeOur staff carry out random scrutinies by examining various journals to uncover any instances where an advertisement may contain material which appears to conflict with the requirements of the Medicines Act 1968 and the relevant regulations.
Relatively few infringements are brought to light either by this examination, or by complaints from elsewhere. This experience and the moderating influence of the industry's codes of practice led me to express satisfaction with the vast majority of advertisements.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services in how many cases a major claim, made in an advertisement for a medical drug, has been abandoned; if he will give the names of the drugs and the companies involved; and whether his Department played any part in the abandonment of the claim.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeNo records are maintained of the number of claims, whether major or otherwise, made in drug advertisements and subsequently abandoned.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to his answer of 12 July, Official Report, c. 327, how many of his staff are engaged on the random scrutiny of advertisements for medicinal drugs; what proportion of advertisements he estimates are scrutinised by his staff; what is the cost to his Department of the random scrutiny; and by how much he intends to increase the resources allocated for this purpose.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe initial random scrutiny of advertisements is one element in the duties of three administrative staff and is estimated to be of the order of £7,000 a year in terms of overall resources. Substantial additional resources of a variable and unquantifiable nature arise from the subsequent investigation of possible offences which may require consideration by other administrators and by doctors, pharmacists, lawyers and enforcement officers.
427WWe are considering a change to ensure that a greater concentration of existing resources can be applied to prescription-only advertisements, but these proposals have not yet been finalised.
Advertisements can appear in one or more of an extensive range of general or specialised journals and periodicals. It is not possible to quantify the proportion that are scrutinised but it will be small in relation to the totality of individual advertisements.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many voluntary codes of practice, subscribed to by members of the pharmaceutical industry, include recommendations about advertising; how the recommendations differ in the various codes; in what way his Department was involved in the preparation of the codes; whether his Department monitors the observation of such codes; and what sanctions there are to encourage observation of the codes.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThere are five codes of practice dealing expressly with the advertising of medicinal products. They are similar in objective but are tailored to the particular characteristics of the part of the industry to which they relate. The Department has been, and continues to be, consulted on general aspects of these codes and on proposed amendments. Officials have regular meetings with the administrators of these codes.
All companies subscribing to such codes agree to observe their provisions and each code contains a power for removal of offending companies from membership of the sponsoring association. Furthermore the Advertising Standards Authority has the sanction of adverse publicity, withholding of advertising space, withdrawal of an advertising agency's privilege and notifying other consumer protection agencies.
§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services pursuant to the answer, Official Report, 12 July, c. 326, indicating that the regulations on data sheets ensure that essential information is available on them regarding the medicines that professional practitioners are likely to prescribe, if he will now consider banning the advertising of medicinal drugs.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeI see no need to consider a ban on the advertisement of medicinal products.