"Sue Kedgley's call to ban direct-to-consumer advertising from drug companies is a calculated insult to the intelligence of New Zealanders and their doctors," said Libertarianz health spokesman Richard McGrath today.

"The Greens want this type of marketing banned, as they say it results in more prescriptions and costs the taxpayer more in subsidies," added Dr McGrath. "But the examples of medicines that she quotes in her press statement, Zocor and Xenical, are used to prevent heart disease, diabetes and other conditions, and generally speaking this is money well spent."

"State censorship of pharmaceutical company advertising to consumers is a serious threat to free speech," McGrath continued. "Why shouldn't the public be allowed to learn of the existence of new medicines from the companies that do the research and produce these products in the first place?"

"If Sue Kedgley is so concerned about the taxpayer being forced to subsidise expensive new medicines, why doesn't she advocate the obvious - allow drug companies to advertise, abolish Pharmac and let people pay the full cost of their prescriptions themselves. This should reduce the apparently unnecessary prescriptions about which Kedgley seems so concerned."

"Give people their stolen tax money back, and let each individual and their health provider decide what, if any, drug treatment is best for them."

It's enough to make you vote Libertarianz!

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>