Cualquier comentario sobre productos farmacéuticos que aparezca en los media, puede ser considerado como "publicidad", advierte la Corte europea...

Article 86 of European Union (EU) Directive 2001/83/EC, which defines the concept of medicines advertising, “does not rule out the possibility that a message originating from an independent third party may constitute advertising, nor does [it] require a message to be disseminated in the context of commercial or industrial activity in order for it to be held to be advertising,” said the Court.

Moreover, such “advertising…is liable to harm public health,” even when it is carried out by “an independent third party outside any commercial or industrial activity,” added the Court, in a shock ruling which is raising concerns for the future of media reporting of health care issues.

The decision was given in a long-running case concerning Danish journalist Frede Damgaard, who in 2003 published information on his website about Hyben Total, a product licensed in Denmark as a treatment for a wide range of conditions - including gout, kidney and bladder disorders, sciatica, diarrhea and diabetes - until 1999, when the national regulator refused it a marketing authorisation. It is still sold as a medicine in Sweden and Norway.

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