New Zealand Remains One of Two Countries to Allow Big Pharma Advertisement

New Zealand is one of two countries in the entire world that allows big pharma to advertise prescription products to the public. The other country is the US.

On 19 July, the Green Party attempted to table an amendment to the recent Therapeutic Products Bill brought before Parliament, aiming to ban direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription medicines and “protect communities against [their] exploitative advertising strategies”.

The Greens urged other political parties to support the amendment, and was successful in getting a vote towards it from the National Party. “It’s not often that we actually agree with the National Party,” said Green Party health spokesperson, Ricardo Menéndez March, “but it was good to see them actually getting behind the best practice and the evidence.”

The attempted change proved unsuccessful, with the bill passing without the amendment due to lacking a vote from the Labour Party.

Menéndez March told Salient that allowing pharmaceutical companies to advertise comes at the expense of public health. “It creates a power imbalance. [Pharmaceutical companies are] not necessarily focused on public health when [advertising]. It enables those pharmaceutical companies with the most resources to then push their product more aggressively.”

Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall did not support the amendment, despite an open letter calling for the ban boasting the signatures of experts such as former Prime Minister Helen Clark, former Director-General of Health Sir Ashley Bloomfield, Consumer NZ, and all 17 New Zealand medical colleges.

“[New Zealand] may have been leaders on several issues historically,” said Menéndez March, “but on others, we've trailed behind. And [advertising of prescription medicines] just happens to be one of those issues that has been left untouched.”