The Government is considering changes to how drugs are advertised.

A complaint from visiting cancer expert Richard Sullivan has prompted the move by the Government.

Sullivan told Radio New Zealand that some of the treatments advertised here simply don't do what they are promoted as doing, labelling some of them as "simple quackery". 

Chair of the New Zealand Medical Association Kate Baddock told The Weekend Collective that our drug advertising laws are well past their used by date.

"We and the States are the only countries where there is direct consumer advertising of prescription drugs, and that should end."

She says that when people see an advertisement, they become fixated on what they want and think it's what they need.

"In fact, that drug could be totally inappropriate for a number of reasons."

Baddock says that most doctors end up wasting time having to convince them why they shouldn't use it. 

She says that she would simply remove the advertising, as other every other country does, and it would save us time and money.