Canada urged over DTC ads and generics

29 June 2003

The president of the Canadian Newspaper Association has told a Senate hearing that the federal government should end its ban on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines. Anne Kothawala told the panel that Canadians want and deserve balanced, regulated and clear information on prescription drugs so that they can participate in decisions that affect their health.

Meantime, the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association has said that, with the US Food and Drug Administration decision to allow brand-name drugmakers just one 30-month stay of a generic drug's entry into the market for resolution of a patent challenge (Marketletter June 23), Canada is now the only country in the world that allows branded drug manufacturers to block generic competition with repeated automatic injunctions.

US President George W Bush "is standing up for consumers and the health care system, and it is time for the Canadian government to do the same," according to the CGPA's president, Jim Keon.

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