Medical body highlights misleading ads

JAKARTA (JP): Health food and drink advertisements are largely misleading because the medical benefits are not as great as they bombastically claim, a consumer advocate said yesterday.

Azrul Azwar, chief of the Indonesian Medical Association said food and drink makers are not qualified to claim their products have certain medical effects because they do not employ medical advisers to supervise the production process.

Azrul made the remarks after installing new executives at the Indonesian Pharmaceutical Medical Association (PEDFI).

"Without explaining their production process and holding clinical trials, the products can easily be advertised and are readily available," he said.

He acknowledged that the Ministry of Health has tightened the supervision of advertisements of pharmaceutical products, but pointed out that the measures often ineffective.

Advisors

"If the companies that produced health foods and drinks had medical advisors, I'm sure they (advisors) wouldn't agree to those kinds of advertisements," Azrul said.

PEDFI's new chairman Johannes Hudyono added that the companies should consider medical advisors as important as marketing managers.

"Medical advisors would improve companies' credibility in the long term. In addition, they also help protect the consumers," Johannes said.

He explained that most of the medical advisors employed by pharmaceutical companies do not have adequate technical knowledge.

"These companies hire newly graduated doctors, who have no pharmaceutical background, to make the companies look good, without actually adding much authority to the products," Johannes said.

Of the 280 pharmaceutical companies in the country, only about 70 employ medical advisors. Most of them are large-scale pharmaceutical companies or foreign firms, according to Azrul.

Campaign

Azrul said that his association will embark on a campaign to make the public aware of the need for medical advisors in pharmaceutical, supplementary health food and drink companies.

"We will propose that the government should refuse to issue permits to such companies unless they have medical advisors or a department of pharmaceutical medicine," Azrul said.

In the future, he said, medical advisors would be a necessary part of the labor force to make other countries accept Indonesian pharmaceutical products. "In addition, medical advisors are also necessary to develop new products," Azrul said.

He said that the association will seek to open a pharmaceutical post-graduate course at the University of Indonesia. (31)