Title: Empowering Stakeholders in Drug Policy Making by Research Evidence to Improve

Title: Empowering Stakeholders in Drug Policy Making by Research Evidence to Improve Regulations for Ethical Drug Advertisements toward Rational Drug Use

Author Name: Pham HuyDung

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Presenter Name: Pham HuyDung

Authors: Dung PH, Nguyen Thi Kim, Chuc NTK and Nguyen Thi Minh Hieu

Institution: Institute for Health and Development, Vietnam

Problem Statement: Drugs have become more available in Vietnam; there are no more shortages. On the contrary, there are too many drugs, so that foreign and local companies compete for drug sales, thus increasing public spending on drugs and leading to unethical drug advertising, which could have a negative impact on rational drug use.

Objectives: The study aims to inform stakeholders in drug policy making about research evidence on unethical drug advertisement so that they may improve regulations for drug promotion and promote rational drug use.

Design: Pre-post evaluation of the regulatory status and its impact on advertisements to the public, on advertisements to doctors as well as on promotional practices.

Setting and Population: Various stakeholders in drug policy making: the Committee for Social Affairs of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister’s Research Commission, the Committee of Science and Education of the Leading Party (the Communist Party), various departments of the Ministry of Health, various non-government associations such as the Youth Federation, and the Women’s Union.

Intervention: Use of research results from a study on country status, regulatory status, drug advertisements to the public, advertisements to doctors, and promotional practice in 1998 to inform stakeholders in drug policy making about evidence of unethical aspects of drug promotion harmful to rational drug use. The information process was implemented through meetings, seminars and workshops using the Meta analysis method.

Outcome Measures: Public expenditure for drugs; quality and quantity of legal documents; % of advertisements to the public; % of advertisements to doctors respecting WHO-Ethical Criteriafor drug promotion; and % of doctors, % of medical representatives and % of manufacturers aware of WHO-EC for drug promotion.

Results: The evaluation in 2003 found that (1) public expenditure for drugs doubled in comparison with the year 1998; (2) there were more laws, regulations and guidelines for drug promotion; (3) there was a higher % of advertisements to the public and to doctors with generic drug names and contra-indications (on TV, on journals, on newspapers, on posters, etc.); and (4) a higher % of doctors, medical representatives and manufacturers were aware of WHO-EC for drug promotion.

Conclusions: This is an intervention study from research to policy using research evidence to inform stakeholders in drug policy making. The study suggests the development of a monitoring mechanism for identification of unethical aspects of drug promotion to inform policy makers so that they may improveme the regulatory status, thus leading to improvement of drug promotion for rational drug use.

Study Funding: Australia Aid (AUSAID), part of the multi country study involving Vietnam, Thailand, Lao PDR and Indonesia)