Many industry funds conferences and information campaigns that actually mask real advertising.
More advertising than research: the fact that the majority of drug multinationals generally invest more in marketing than in research is a fact that has been substantially known for some time and is now confirmed by a study published in the journal Plos Medicine. On this point, needless to say, the dynamics follow the laws of the market, in Italy as in the United States. But for reality to be as close to the interests of public health and not disguised or ambiguous, it is essential that two conditions are met: first, that research is also financed by independent agencies; second, that the promotion made by the industries is absolutely explicit advertising.
In Italy, the Ministry of Health through Aifa (the Italian Medicines Agency) finances a large number of research in the pharmacological field through a transparent and broad evaluation process of research projects using as funds a part of the money that the industries have invested in advertising. Therefore, in our country there is a sort of virtuous mechanism whereby a percentage of the expenditure destined by private individuals to promote the drug is diverted to a fund used by AIFA to sponsor independent research. Last year, for example, 454 letters of intent, i.e. proposals for research projects, were sent to the agency, and 99 of these were selected which had a particular relevance for the national health service. An international commission of experts evaluated them one by one and established a ranking of the most deserving ones. Finally, Aifa financed 51 of them, for a total of over 30 million euros. This absolutely innovative system is Italian and I believe unique in the world.
No one disputes that private industry can invest in advertising and can do so to the extent it deems most just. The crux of the matter is the transparency of this advertising because often there is a tendency to create a misunderstanding between what is the purely promotional aspect and the informative aspect. Many industry funds conferences and information campaigns that actually mask real advertising. When an opinion leader speaks, we doctors do not know if the judgment he gives is an independent judgment or if it is conditioned in some way by the funding he has received from the pharmaceutical industry. This is why we need more transparency and a system that guarantees correct information.
(Text collected by Ottavia Giustetti) La Repubblica of 08/01/2008, article by MARCO BOBBIO ed. national p. 27
