New formulation
Drug advertising: “Ask your doctor”
The drug warning known from advertising is “the subject of discussions because of the use of the generic masculine” – and is now getting an update. photo
© Monika Skolimowska/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
It’s a sentence that millions of people can say – even if some might be a bit annoyed. Now the same warning in commercials for medicines is to be changed.
Actually, formulations from laws rarely become well-known classics in everyday use. With a sentence from paragraph 4, paragraph 3 of the Medicines Advertising Act, it happened like this: “For risks and side effects, read the package leaflet and ask your doctor or pharmacist.”
For a good three decades, this prescribed warning text has been mandatory for drug advertising “outside the specialist circles”. And on radio and television it can always be read aloud as well. Now a rather gentle change is to come. After all, you can’t just ask male experts.
In the future, the somewhat lengthened wording should read: “For risks and side effects, read the package insert and ask your doctor or your pharmacy.” This is what it says in a draft law by the Federal Ministry of Health that the cabinet has launched.
Female physicians in the majority for the first time
The warning has been “the subject of discussions for years because of the use of the generic masculine,” it says. Aspects of gender equality should therefore now be taken into account. Because you should usually have a connection to a doctor treating you – that’s what the new formula should express. And the purchase of medicines is not linked to a person either, it is done in the pharmacy.
The change also takes up demands from professional associations. The German Medical Association, for example, had spoken out in favor of this, since the previous formula no longer fit the time. In practices, female doctors and psychotherapists make up an appreciably larger proportion. Taken together, they are just in the majority for the first time, as the Federal Medical Register showed as of the end of 2022.
The proportion of women exceeded the 50 percent mark and reached 50.7 percent. It rose to 76.8 percent for female psychotherapists and 45.2 percent for female doctors. Female doctors under the age of 50 are in the lead.
In order for the pharmaceutical and advertising industries to be able to change the advertising supplement, a transitional period of five months is planned after the amendment to the law comes into force. The draft is now coming to the Bundestag for further deliberations. However, the conversion costs should be low, according to the draft. If necessary, higher advertising costs could be incurred, namely “due to the slightly lengthened text to be spoken in the audiovisual advertising”.