Kiwis Hooked on Drug Adverts

NEW ZEALANDERS watch a television advertisement for drugs such as Viagra and Xenical every 102 minutes, a new study has found.

Otago University researchers identified 340 ads for medicines screening on local television during a 35-day sample.

A quarter of them were for dietary supplements and 18 per cent were for prescription-only medicines, including Viagra for impotence, Propecia for baldness, and Xenical for obesity, their report published in yesterday’s New Zealand Medical Journal shows.

The ads were found in a wide range of programmes, including children’s shows. Most of the drug advertisements screened in the afternoons.

New Zealand and the United States are the only two developed countries in the world that allow direct to consumer advertising of prescription medicines.

The report authors said advertising could have “significant consequences for individual and public health” if it led consumers to use inappropriate medicines or use them the wrong way.