I’ve written a lot about ethical pharmacy practice in New Zealand, advocating for New Zealand pharmacists to choose not to promote or sell healthcare products that aren’t supported by credible evidence of efficacy. I’ve also complained in the past about misleading advertising of ineffective healthcare products in pharmacies. I strongly believe that we should be able to feel confident going into a pharmacy that we will get evidence-based advice on purchasing effective healthcare products, and not be misled.

The Pharmacy Council is responsible under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act for setting standards of ethical conduct for pharmacists in New Zealand. Section 6.9 of their current Safe Effective Pharmacy Practice Code of Ethics 2011 states that pharmacists must:

6.9

Only purchase, supply or promote any medicine, complementary therapy, herbal remedy or other healthcare product where there is no reason to doubt its quality or safety and when there is credible evidence of efficacy.

The Pharmacy Council is currently proposing to change this section of their code of ethics to the following wording, prior to the entire code being reviewed in 2016:

6.9a

Only supply or promote any medicine or herbal remedy where there is no reason to doubt its quality or safety and when there is credible evidence of efficacy.

6.9b

Only supply any complementary therapy or other healthcare product where there is no reason to doubt its quality or safety and when sufficient information about the product can be provided in order for the purchaser to make an informed choice with regard to the risks and benefits of all the available treatment options.

I have referred to section 6.9 of that code of ethics many times, as I feel it is a great standard which should offer a significant degree of consumer protection. However, despite there being ample evidence that homeopathic products are ineffective, most New Zealand pharmacies continue to sell them. I have heard many stories of people encountering misinformation about homeopathy in New Zealand pharmacies that sell it. The section of the code of ethics that is meant to protect consumers against this simply has not been enforced.

Even when the Society for Science Based Healthcare lodged a formal complaint directly to the Pharmacy Council about an instance where someone was recommended and sold a homeopathic product in a pharmacy (but didn’t realise it was homeopathic until they got home), both the Pharmacy Council and the Health and Disability Commissioner (who had the complaint forwarded to them from the Pharmacy Council) refused to enforce it. Neither of them were willing to tell pharmacies that they could not sell any specific product.

So although I really do like the old wording, I think this change could be an opportunity to turn the code of ethics into something that really can help consumers. As part of the proposed change, the Pharmacy Council is calling for submissions on it, so I see this as an opportunity to make things better.

At the Society for Science Based Healthcare, we have prepared a proposal to submit before the deadline of 5pm on the 1st of October 2015. I’ve included this proposal below for you to read, and you can also find it on our site: Pharmacy Council Code of Ethics Proposal

If you agree with our submission and would like to support it, please leave a comment below or get in touch. You can contact the Society for Science Based Healthcare via email at sbh@sbh.nz. We will be sending this submission to the Pharmacy Council on Wednesday the 30th of September Thursday the 8th of October (the Pharmacy Council extended their deadline).

Of course, you can also send in your own submission on this proposal. Details on how to do this can be found in the Pharmacy Council’s proposal document.

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Last year the Society for Science Based Healthcare submitted a formal complaint to the Pharmacy Council regarding an Auckland pharmacy that had misled a consumer by promoting a homeopathic product as effective, then selling it to them. Although the council did write to the pharmacy, to our knowledge it did not consider whether or not the Safe Effective Pharmacy Practice Code of Ethics 2011 section 6.9 had been breached as alleged in the complaint. The council forwarded the complaint to the office of the Health and Disability Commissioner, but both organisations were unwilling or unable to enforce it as this would involve telling a pharmacy which products they can or cannot sell. Neither the Pharmacy Council nor the Health and Disability Commissioner seems willing to enforce a code of ethics when this would involve telling pharmacists which products they can or can’t stock.

The Pharmacy Council’s proposal document notes that the Council “has a duty to protect the public”. A code of ethics which is not enforced may as well not exist. We feel the addition of a new section requiring that sufficient information can be provided to consumers in order for them to make an informed choice regarding whether or not to purchase a complementary therapy is in line with what consumers could reasonably expect. We hope that complaints about potential breaches of this standard would be considered by the Pharmacy Council or another body, so that it can offer some measure of consumer protection.

However, we think the wording could be improved by changing “when sufficient information about the product can be provided” to “when sufficient information about the product is provided”.

It is currently widespread practice for New Zealand pharmacies to supply and promote healthcare products which are not supported by credible evidence of efficacy, such as homeopathic products. This is despite several prominent healthcare organisations, including the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA), speaking out against these products being prescribed or promoted by healthcare practitioners. Most recently, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) published a statement on the 10th of September that:

PSA does not support the sale of homeopathy products in pharmacy.

When it comes to pharmacies stocking healthcare products that are not supported by credible evidence of efficacy, or for which there is credible evidence that they are not effective such as in the case of homeopathic products, it is important to weigh up the potential risks and benefits.

On the one hand, if these products are available in a pharmacy consumers will be more likely to visit a pharmacy to purchase them.. This can put them in a position where a pharmacist is able to provide them with evidence-based advice, so they can make an informed decision on purchasing the best product for whatever problem they are experiencing. If the product were not available in a pharmacy, they may instead seek it from a source which would not provide them with this information, or which may misinform them.

However, there are certain circumstances in which any potential for this benefit can be lost completely:

1. If consumers are sent away from pharmacies when they ask about these products. We are aware, for example, of numerous instances of people being recommended by pharmacy employees that they should instead go to a dedicated natural health product store for information on homeopathic products.
2. If pharmacists create an environment in which consumers are likely to be misled, for example by employing a homeopath to give non evidence-based advice to their customers.
3. If a pharmacy sells these products online, in which case they can be purchased without any opportunity for a pharmacist to provide enough information for consumers to make an informed decision.

On the other hand, when a product is available in pharmacies it is likely to lead consumers to believe that it is an effective, evidence-based product. This is often used as a selling point by products which are not supported by evidence. For example, the homeopathic product No-Jet-Lag advertises itself as being available at “Most chemists nationwide“. In this way, pharmacists stocking products without credible evidence of efficacy can also contribute to an increase in consumer demand for them. Supplying a product in a pharmacy is effectively also a form of promotion.

Although some benefit can be gained from pharmacists stocking products that are not backed by credible evidence of efficacy, in order for consumers to make an informed choice about purchasing these products it is important that they be made aware of this lack of evidence. It should be an ethical requirement that pharmacists will not promote any healthcare product where there is not credible evidence of efficacy.

The Pharmacy Council’s consultation document for this proposed change says that:

In instances where there is credible evidence to suggest a specific complementary and/or alternative medicine/product lacks efficacy, pharmacists should not promote or recommend its use

We agree with this, but feel it has not been clearly conveyed in the proposed new wording for section 6.9. We feel it would be useful for this to be included more clearly.

We also feel that the important distinction between healthcare products is not whether they are considered a complementary therapy, herbal remedy, or medicine, but whether or not they are supported by credible evidence of efficacy. However, we recognise that medicines and herbal remedies typically have greater risk than other healthcare products, so it may be more suitable to have more stringent requirements for when pharmacists may supply them.

With this in mind, we propose the following wording:

6.9a

Only supply any medicine or herbal remedy where there is credible evidence of efficacy.

6.9b

Only promote any complementary therapy or other healthcare product where there is credible evidence of efficacy.

6.9c

Only supply or promote any medicine, herbal remedy, complementary therapy or other healthcare product where there is no reason to doubt its quality or safety and when there is not credible evidence to suggest that the product lacks efficacy.

6.9d

Provide sufficient information about any medicine, herbal remedy, complementary therapy or other healthcare product product in order for the purchaser to make an informed choice with regard to the risks and benefits of all the available treatment options.

Finally, we feel that certain words could benefit from guidance on their definitions. In our 2014 complaint we raised with the Pharmacy Council that the meaning of “credible evidence” was not clear but were informed it was not their role to clarify this. However we feel it would be useful for an organisation such as the Pharmaceutical Society to publish guidance notes on this after the code has been updated.

We also feel that the meaning of “promote” should be clarified in the same way so it is clear where exactly the line is drawn. For example, we feel it is currently unclear which of the following activities might be considered promotion for the purpose of this code:

• Advertising the availability of a healthcare product at a pharmacy
• Featuring a product on a pharmacy’s website
• Including an advertisement for the product on a pharmacy’s website on a page from which it can be purchased

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If you agree with our submission and would like to support it, please leave a comment below or get in touch. You can contact the Society for Science Based Healthcare via email at sbh@sbh.nz. We will be sending this submission to the Pharmacy Council on Wednesday the 30th of September Thursday the 8th of October (the Pharmacy Council extended their deadline).