THE Australian Self Medication Industry has hailed the TGA invitation for feedback on proposals to allow more widespread advertising of pharmacist only (S3) medicines (PD yesterday).
ASMI marketing director Filomena Maiese noted a TGA statement in the consultation document that it was "widely acknowledged that a ban on advertising of pharmacist only medicines to the public was unique to Australia".
"ASMI's default position is that all S3 medications should be allowed to be advertised unless there are good public health reasons why they shouldn't be," Maiese said.
"Consequently, our proposed advertising model includes a clearly defined 'non-advertisable' list for products that fits certain exemption criteria such as products with a history of misuse, abuse or diversion for illegal use."
She said she was very encouraged to see S3 advertising taking such a prominent place in the consultation, with the six items up for discussion reflecting different facets of ASMI's proposals which suggest a structured format that includes disease awareness and emphasises the pharmacists' role.
ASMI also welcomed the possibility of a "proactive S4 to S3 switch committee" creating incentives to switch, with the measures having the potential to "reignite" the S3 category.
Research by The Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy (MUCHE) in 2014 showed that switching 11 prescription-only medicines to OTC had the potential to generate direct cost savings of $1.1b to the healthcare system plus indirect productivity gains of almost $1b pa in employee yield benefits.
More info at www.asmi.com.au.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 05 Apr 17
To see the full newsletter, see the embedded issue below or CLICK HERE to download Pharmacy Daily from 05 Apr 17
