HK lobby pushes for end to decades-old drug ad ban

HONG KONG: International pharmaceutical companies have thrown their support behind a lobby to persuade the Government to lift a decades-old ban on pharmaceutical advertising. The move - if it succeeds - will open up a new, category with the potential to spend multi-millions on advertising. Apple Daily's corporate accounts director Mark Simon, who is helping to organise the lobby, estimated spend in the first year could hit as much as HK$400 million. "This is not a complicated piece of legislation and we're not going to quibble if some drugs are left out," Simon said. The lobby has attracted strong support from the Hong Kong Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (HKAPI), which counts about 50 multinational pharmaceutical companies as members, and the American Chamber of Commerce, which is keen to see US-style pharmaceutical advertising permitted in Hong Kong. Robert Siu, executive director of the HKAPI, said the association was keen to ensure all consumers in Hong Kong had similar access to pharmaceutical information. He said the web only provided access to some quarters of the population. "We would like to see the information disseminated through mass communications tools as is the case in the US and New Zealand."

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