Prescription Only Meds Advertised on TV ?

[OP8S]

Was watching the TV last night & in the commercial break prescription only medication was advertised, it was tactfully done as I assume that it was for lemsip or the like & the company advertising it was Lilly. It's the only advert I have ever seen for a prescription medicine so am a little puzzled why it gets air-time when other prescription meds do not.
Could the Gov. or DSPs advertise methadone or subutex as a medication for those wishing to enter treatment ? I doubt it, but then thinking about it I really wouldn't be surprised if they were in need of drumming up some trade !
It did strike me as being a bit weird though, I'd of thought that if you can't get it up then your GP would be your first port of call ?!
Anyway, hope everybody has a nice weekend ( with no problems for their saturday night promise    )

[Flip]

I think it's probably the start of the same  sort of thing the Americans see on their TV's almost every commercial break. The idea of direct marketing  of prescription medicines  to the public so that they self-diagnose and go and hassle their GP for a brand name product may just have been the most lucrative marketing scheme the drug companies have yet come up with. I surely hope it doesn't get as bad here as in the USA but I don't hold out much hope .

Flip

[OP8S]

I would have thought that there would have been some kind of regulation in place, purely because I can't ever remember seeing an advertisment for a prescription only medication. I was obviously wrong, so does that mean any pharmacuetical company can advertise their products in the U.K for the public to see ?
I always think about DHC when the dff advert comes on & that's just a company that sells cheap sofas ! 

[timtrash]

when i was in the states i noticed it a lot. you'd switch on the t.v. and when the add break came on there'd be all these commercials of folks with certain issues and there'd be some voice over saying "ever feel depressed? lost the spring in your step?.... try, new prozac!" etc etc.... (not a direct quote that bit from the add, lol, but you see what i mean.)

[simon]

I've heard radio adverts clearly sponsored by drug companies for dementia sufferers suggesting they see a GP, no mention of the company though.

[physeptomaton]

Prescription Only medicines are illegal to advertise to the public anywhere in the European Union, and the regulation includes the Internet so certain websites which offer "online doctor" services will not show you the price of their medications until you have logged in, and some pharmaceutical sites begin with an "Are you a health professional?" screen; clicking No may either lead to a "sorry" page or a version of the site with less information that has been approved as not being an advert.

Eli Lilly make C****S (tadalafil) [POM] {name censored to avoid "ribena" spam filter} but the commercial does not name the drug; if it did both Lilly and the channel airing it would be liable to a heavy fine. It is considered to be a branded public information film rather than an advertisement in the broadcast form.

Oh flip and timtrash- they considered changing the law a couple of years ago to allow DTC marketing but decided against it, I once picked up an American magazine in Tel Aviv airport and it had adverts for controlled drugs in it (I think slow release zolpidem)