Stirling Griff (SA, Centre Alliance) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Minister Cash, representing the Minister for Health. I refer the minister to an ABC online story that ran last month about a loophole in the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code which allows pharmaceutical companies to falsely advertise the purported benefits of their products, in this case opioids, to general practitioners. TGA guidelines only stipulate that marketing and advertising must not mislead consumers. They are silent on the promotion and marketing of prescription drugs to GPs. The story quotes a TGA spokesperson defending self-regulation of the industry by saying, 'It allows the TGA to focus on consumer protection.' Minister, if the guidelines effectively allow doctors to be given false and misleading information by lax self-regulatory codes, are you concerned that doctors could potentially be prescribing incorrect doses or inappropriate products?