Insights & Trends

Recent changes to medicinal marijuana laws and regulations globally have expanded opportunities for medical research and patient care.

These actions are part of a broader global movement of governments and advocates to recognise the potential medicinal benefits of marijuana, which has long been considered solely a harmful recreational drug. These purported medical benefits include aiding in the treatment of  epilepsy, PTSD, chronic pain and more.

Here we present three examples of GLOBALHealthPR member countries – Australia, Canada and the United States – that are tackling the legislative issues surrounding the use of medical marijuana.

Australia:

Last month, New South Wales (NSW) became the first state in Australia to approve legislation that legalises marijuana for medicinal purposes. The Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act allows doctors to request approval from NSW Health to prescribe medical marijuana to patients who “exhausted standard treatment options.”

The announcement follows extensive trials of marijuana as a medicinal therapy. The Hon. Mike Baird MP hoped to make NSW a global leader in medicinal marijuana research and rallied for it to be accessible for those in need.

“People who are seriously ill should be able to access these medicines if they are the most appropriate next step in their treatment,” said Mr. Baird announcing the legalization of medicinal marijuana on July 31.

The NSW government is also establishing the Centre for Cannabis Research and Innovation, which has been granted $21 million over the next four years to conduct medicinal marijuana trials. Other Australian states, including Queensland, look to follow suit, with multiple trials studying the medicinal benefits of marijuana occurring in the Sunshine State for children living with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Look here to learn more about how medicinal marijuana will be used therapeutically in Australia.

Canada:

Canadian regulations of medicinal marijuana have been in a state of flux over the years. In 2014, the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) established Canada’s first commercial industry of highly-regulated, licensed producers (LPs) of medicinal marijuana, replacing the previous Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR). To date, 35 LPs are authorised to produce dried marijuana for medical purposes.

In June 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada (R. v. Smith) decided that restricting legal access to only dried marijuana was unconstitutional. As a result, some of these producers are also authorised to produce and sell fresh cannabis and cannabis oil.

The Federal Court of Canada found that “requiring individuals to get their marijuana only from licensed producers violated liberty and security rights protected by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” (Allard v. Canada). In response, the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) replaced MMPR, allowing for limited personal cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes.

Alongside this developing industry, Canada’s current federal government has committed to exploring the legalisation of recreational cannabis. The Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation was launched in June 2016 and will rely on expert and public consultation to draft recommendations related to this new system. New legislation is anticipated in 2017.

United States:

As of this year, 25 states – as well as the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico– have legalised marijuana for medicinal use with a recent push in 17 other states to allow a low dosage prescription in limited medical situations.

Despite the progress being made on a state-by-state basis, medicinal marijuana is still in question on an federal level. Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) rejected petitions to remove medicinal marijuana from Schedule I, which rejects marijuana for medicinal use and prohibits doctor prescriptions.

“Marijuana has a legacy reputation. Views are evolving but in the meantime, patients, prescribers and researchers are caught between states that allow medical use of cannabis and the federal government, which maintains that all marijuana use is illegal,” said Al Jackson, EVP Spectrum.

However, the DEA has approved a policy to enact more registered marijuana manufacturers for research purposes. Until this recent change, the University of Mississippi was the only entity in the United States that had the federal license to grow marijuana for medical research.

What’s next?

Long considered a drug that was at best recreational and at worst incredibly harmful, marijuana is starting to see a shift in perceptions as studies are being undertaken to explore its clinical benefits; even big pharma is getting in on the act. One could make the argument that the science is influencing legislation, as studies provide evidence of clinical benefit, more and more governmental bodies are willing to reduce restrictions on the medical use of cannabis. Could this feedback cycle of promising science provide the impetus for medical legalisation in even more countries? Its likely too early to tell, but as seen above, momentum is certainly shifting in favor of fewer restrictions.

What do you think the future of medical marijuana looks like? Sound off in the comments below.

 This blog was a collaborative effort by GLOBALHealthPR Australia partner VIVA! Communications, Canada partner energiPR, and U.S. partner Spectrum.

For most individuals, the prescriber-patient relationship ends when the prescriber rips off a paper with the patient’s written prescription. As a patient, the moment you see the bottom of your prescription bottle, you know it’s time to take a trip down to the pharmacy to restock the pills. Weeks, months, and even years have passed by and you’re in a cycle of refilling your prescription, with poor communication between you and your prescriber. You may not feel the necessity to call up your prescriber because you feel fine, right? If you don’t experience life-threatening side effects, you must think you’re doing ok.

However, patients can still experience minor impairments in their daily activities that they do not notice or think to mention, which can cause severe health risks in the long-run. In the last 5 years, inappropriate use of pharmaceuticals has dramatically increased. And often, the misuse of prescription drugs tracks back to lack of communication between a patient and prescriber. What are some ways can we prevent prescription misuse, leading to health problems and even death?

Look beyond the prescriber

In an interview with Michelle Gross, Managing Director of Spectrum Science Communications New York Office, I asked for her opinion on whether or not she believes prescribers provide their patients sufficient warning about hazardous interactions between their prescription and OTC medicines or drug and alcohol use. “Patients don’t get enough information about the medicine they are taking and the conditions they have…they need to look beyond the prescriber for ways they could get that information” says Michelle, referring to the fact that prescribers don’t have the time to inform every single one of their patients about the details of each prescription.

Michelle suggested the solution may lie in the prescriber’s care team, like a nurse or a physician’s assistant. Patients could use them as the primary point-of-contact when they have a question about their prescription. Maintaining contact once and a while with a healthcare professional could enhance their knowledge about the drugs they take and provide the opportunity to learn how to prevent misuse.

A potential website portal or app

We use smartphones to connect ourselves with our loved-ones through social media platforms, emailing, and instant messaging. Smartphones and mobile devices have become so deeply ingrained in our social lives, it is hard to imagine what we would do without them.

Michelle asked, “Is there an online google-type resource that could be created where patients could check to get an alert every time their medicine changes? We have the technology to do that, there’s no reason why something like that couldn’t be created.” It doesn’t seem realistic for a physician to be responsible to hold every single one of their patient’s hand and guide them towards their medication process.  If a website portal or an app was created for patients to track their prescription, it could potentially decrease prescription misuse and fit seamlessly into their daily routine.

Inform to enhance

Patients and prescribers are busy with their own lives. Neither have time to constantly look out for their
prescriptions or remind one another about important information. However, there is a burden of responsibility on the prescribers, as they are the experts, to properly inform the patient of both the benefits and the risks of taking a drug; this description has to be comprehensive, prescription misuse happens (more often) when patients don’t have the information they need.  Michelle suggests this burden also extends to patients to be open about their personal lives and to update their prescriber on how a particular medication regime is affecting them. Their past challenges, like a drug or alcohol problems, or a family history of adverse reactions to some medications is crucial information for the prescriber when explaining to the patient the benefits and risk factors of a prescription.

Repair our habits

Imagine waking up one morning to a notification from a drug tracker app on your phone informing you that Tylenol can give you severe adverse reactions when taken with your prescribed ADD medicine. You would immediately avoid Tylenol and find an alternate OTC pain reliever to take.  The amount of lives saved would significantly increase if we had the tool to be notified each time our prescription is modified. Prescribers can be more active in encouraging their patients to be responsible and informed about the status and risks of their prescriptions. To prevent incidents of prescription drug misuse, as patients, we must do our parts to responsibly monitor our health while taking prescription medicine and keep our doctors in the loop. By building stronger relationships with our prescribers, we can repair habits of poor communication with one another and properly provide important information about the prescribed medicine and, slowly, but surely, begin to see less prescription misuse.

About the Author:

Fabiana Cuellar is a Public Relations Intern at GLOBALHealthPR

At GLOBALHealthPR, we are proud to announce our official support for World Hepatitis Day, July 28, 2016, joining a plethora of organisations fighting to ELIMINATE chronic Hepatitis C. World Hepatitis Day unites people from all walks of life to raise awareness of the substantial global burden of viral hepatitis and to provoke real change in disease prevention, testing and treatment options. The theme for this year’s World Hepatitis Day is ELIMINATION.

Watch the campaign video here.

What is Hepatitis C?

Chronic Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major global health issue affecting approximately 170 million people worldwide. If left untreated, HCV can progress to cirrhosis (scarring of the liver), liver cancer and liver failure.

HCV is a silent disease – an alarming 95% of people living with viral hepatitis are unaware they have the disease. In May 2016, World Health Organization (WHO) member States that attended the World Health Assembly, Geneva, Switzerland, committed to ELIMINATING viral hepatitis by 2030. The WHO Global Health Sector Strategy (2016-2021) on viral hepatitis aims to reduce the annual death rate from chronic hepatitis from 1.4 million to less than 0.5 million by 2030.

World Hepatitis Day (July 28, 2016) provides an important reminder for families and communities to talk about viral hepatitis and ensure we turn the tide on Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

According to Raquel Peck, CEO of the World Hepatitis Alliance, London, UK, “We are at a turning point for viral hepatitis. We have the tools; we have the commitment; what we need now is action. “We are asking all stakeholders to join us in celebrating the launch of NOhep on World Hepatitis Day, to help eliminate viral hepatitis – an illness that affects 400 million people worldwide.”

#Nohep

Nohep is a global World Hepatitis Alliance movement that aims to unite the hepatitis community and broader public to take action and call upon governments to ensure global commitments are met by 2030.

WHY Nohep?

1. Nohep… is RIGHT

4,000 deaths per day is 4,000 too many. Join Nohep… for greater access to life-saving medicines and vaccines

2. Nohep… is SMART

Eliminating hepatitis C will pay for itself by 2030. Join Nohep… to ensure governments make smart investments

3. Nohep … is FOR ALL

Viral hepatitis stigma stops people working, learning and having relationships. Join Nohep… to end stigma and stop discrimination

4. Nohep… OUR NEXT GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT

Taking action now will save 7 million lives by 2030. Join Nohep… to make the elimination of viral hepatitis our next greatest achievement.

HOW?

1. VACCINATE for Nohep

300,000 cancer deaths a year can be prevented. Join Nohep… for universal vaccination coverage.

2. TEST for Nohep…

95 per cent of people living with viral hepatitis don’t know they are living with the disease. Join Nohep… for increased testing among those at-risk.

3. TREAT for Nohep…

4,000 people die each day, yet life-saving medicines exist. Join Nohep… for greater access to life-saving treatments.

How can you support World Hepatitis Day?

Great strides have already been made, but so much more can be done to ensure 2016 is the beginning of the end of viral hepatitis. 

To pledge your support to ELIMINATE viral hepatitis:

1. Sign up to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 at http://www.nohep.org/.
2. Share photos from your events to show the world how you are contributing to the ELIMINATION of viral hepatitis. Upload your photos to http://worldhepatitisday.org/en/gallery or tweet your pictures using #World HepDay.
3. Sign up to the Nohep Thunderclap before 9:00 am ET at https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/43213-nohep-eliminate-hepatitis to share the following message on your elected social media channels.

 

A few days ago a TrendWatch global monthly e-mailer landed in Neil Crump’s inbox, profiling ‘Big Brand Redemption’. An interesting read, especially when you consider the implications for one of the industries GLOBALHealthPR supports: pharma. The catchy email subject got Neil thinking, “How does this apply to the industry we serve?”

Read his thoughts here.

From May 23rd to May 28th, 3,500 delegates from the WHO’s 194 Member States, including a large proportion of the world’s health ministers, converged on Geneva for the 69th World Health Assembly to discuss the globe’s most essential health topics. The events generated coverage in more than 200 media outlets, 80,000 social mentions totaling 1.5 billion impressions using hashtag #WHA69.

Here are the key takeaways that GLOBALHealthPR partners and many of our clients will be keeping an eye on as we enter the second half of 2016:

1. The Health Emergencies Programme: What You Need to Know

World Health Organization member states agreed to one of the most profound transformations in the WHO’s history, establishing a new  Health Emergencies Programme. As countries face or recover from epidemics such as Zika and Ebola, as well as other threats such as natural disasters, this programme aims to distribute rapid, predictable and comprehensive support.

According to the WHO’s press release, the programme will require a budget of $494 million for the 2016-2017 year, a $160 million increase to the existing budget. In order to track the progress made throughout the year, the WHO Director-General was tasked to report to the 70th World Health Assembly on the programme’s establishment and operation.

Analysis: The WHO has clearly laid out the need and costs involved in bringing such a timely and appropriate programme to life. What remains unclear is what return on investment this will have. An appropriate next step would be a clearly communicated of an action plan (beyond just reporting back at next year’s assembly) to bring the programme to life and an explicit outline of its ROI to pull through the value story.

2. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Dr. Chan also highlighted the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the UN’s post-2015 successor to the Millennium Development Goals.

How do WHO delegates plan to pursue these goals? At the meeting, leaders laid out the following steps:

• Highlight universal health coverage
• Report economic, environmental, and social causes of health problems.
• Continue expanding efforts to address poor maternal and child health and infectious diseases in developing countries

Dr. Chan informed members that health has a crucial role in the new SDG agenda, and that universal health coverage is an effective approach to achieving health related targets.

Analysis: The pharmaceutical industry, often seen as an obstruction is beginning to catch on and take a more meaningful role in reaching these goals. Industry is realizing the need to also communicate with the public about its involvement. For example, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA) has prominently featured the SDGs as a key topic on its new website, and highlighted over  250 partnerships in sustainable development with industry member companies

3. Childhood Obesity

Dr. Chen emphasized the dangers of junk food saying, “the marketing of junk food – particularly to children – has become a global phenomenon.” For example, in Australia, 58 percent of the average household’s food budget is spent on junk food. Additionally, The WHO informed attendees that worldwide today, 19,000 fewer children are dying every day and there’s been a 44 percent decrease in maternal mortality—a huge success. However, key challenges persist:

• 1.9 billion children are overweight
• 462 million children are underweight
• 2 billion children are deficient in essential nutrition

Despite the substantial improvement, the delegates at the WHA agreed to implement two new health strategies linked to the Sustainable Development Goals. The first, The Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health, builds a safeguard for women, children, and adolescents globally, to “survive and thrive” by 2030. This is an update to the 2010 Strategy that WHO has currently implemented. Their intention is to inspire political leaders and policy-makers to improve the health and lifestyles of women, children and adolescents as well as encouraging positive changes.

Analysis: Since 2012, GLOBALHealthPR has spotlighted the lack of discussion around childhood obesity, and identified the opportunity to improve dialogues through digital conversations. It was refreshing to see this trend discussed openly at WHA this year. Now the focus shifts to Dr. Chan’s sharp comments about junk food. How will multinational food industry players respond and collaborate for solutions?

The role of communicators

Communications professionals who routinely serve clients in the pharmaceutical, biotech and consumer science industries should keep a finger on the pulse of what the global public health community is saying and doing. They also need to seek opportunities to share stories about the ways in which industry is working collectively to tackle these key health issues.

For in-house communications officials and marketers, building a dialogue with the public health community encourages awareness and provides the chance to bridge the gap between the public’s often negative perception of industry and the reality that the private sector can be a collaborative and action-oriented partner for global good.

Question: How else can we as communicators reinforce WHO’s efforts in spreading awareness of the key health challenges highlighted at the World Health Assembly?

 

About the Author:

Fabiana Cuellar is a Public Relations Intern at GLOBALHealthPR

In March, a false audio message about the current Dengue fever outbreak in Argentina went viral through WhatsApp, which has nearly 18 million users in in the country (57% of adults with internet access). This caused panic among the population and resulting in widespread accusations of
the government suppressing information about a potential epidemic.

This is not the only such case. At the beginning of the year in Colombia, false news was spread that a group of U.S. specialists would operate on patients with cleft lip for free at a Military Hospital in Bogotá.

Although social media may be useful for disseminating health information, there are obvious drawbacks in terms of quality control and fact checking on a platform where anyone can post anything and claim it as the truth.

In the Argentinian case, a message recorded by a woman who introduced herself as a doctor working at José María Penna Hospital was circulated through WhatsApp. In the message, the woman warned her contacts about a Dengue fever epidemic that is being hidden by the Health System Authorities: “Hi girls, this is a medical notice. I know it´s boring to put on mosquito repellent all the time. The orange can has to be used every two hours and the green can every four hours. The number of dengue fever cases is increasing and the situation is not being made public. At my hospital – Penna Hospital – there are more than 400 diagnosed cases, both in adults and children. Every day, between 7 and 8 new cases are diagnosed and we are expecting a significant epidemic that might occur in March or April…”

The audio circulated very quickly: in just six hours it became a major issue in the media and it forced the health authorities to take action on the matter. As a first step, Penna hospital’s Director, Gustavo San Martin, told the media that there were “nine patients hospitalized, but none in critical condition.” After this clarification the Buenos Aires Minister of Health, Ana Maria Bou Pérez, denied the veracity of the audio recording and indicated that only 216 cases of Dengue were confirmed in the region.

As the message continued spreading and concerns about the concealment of information by health authorities were in the air, Jorge San Juan, the National Director of Epidemiology, released official statistics regarding the number of cases across the country. Minister of Health Dr. Jorge Lemus then delivered a final, authoritative statement on the issue. The panic generated by this viral WhatsApp message lasted only one day, but demanded the attention of the highest authorities in the national health system.

What motivated people nationwide to share this message of panic? The message had typical characteristics of viral content:

• It targeted emotion (to generate concern among listeners);
• It was anonymous (the alleged doctor did not say her name because the message was addressed to her own friends and relatives); and
• It was designed to appear like a genuine “homemade” audio message (her voice is agitated and the sound of ambulance sirens and cars are in the background).

It is interesting to reflect on what people choose to believe. But why do we believe in conspiracies? There are a lot of studies about the high adhesion of conspiracy theories that are a reflection of collective fears. According to professors Eric Oliver of the University of Chicago and Tom Wood of Ohio State University in Columbus, “these kind of theories prove that the brain has not evolved enough to process information on industrial economies, medicine or terrorism. But it did evolve for survival in nature.”

Could it be that the tendency to have fantastic conspiratorial beliefs can be linked to a void of authority and authentic communication? That is, given the lack of confidence in their institutions or political leaders, people seek explanations and guidance from unusual or anonymous sources. For example, a Whatsapp audio note.

What’s really happening with Dengue in Argentina:

The quadrivalent vaccine that was recently launched to prevent Dengue fever has not yet been approved.  For this reason all communications campaigns in the disease area are focused on how to avoid the proliferation of Aedes aegypty -the mosquito that transmits Dengue- through the elimination of breeding sites. One of the most striking aspects of the audio was that it did not refer to this key step in preventing the spread of the disease. But it did mention the need to use repellents more often

 

How do you think institutions can use social media as a positive tool for combatting public health issues such as Dengue? Is there a way potential for abuse and viral misinformation on social media without inhibiting the good it can do? Let us know in the comments.

 

Luciana Acuña Elías is Account Director at GLOBALHealthPR Argentina partner, Paradigma PEL Comunicación