NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Four of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies--Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis and Procter & Gamble--are proposing to launch a European television station to provide information about their drugs direct to consumers--in a continent that bans pharmaceutical drug advertising.

Pharma TV would be a dedicated interactive digital channel funded by the industry with health news and information from the drug companies about their products.

The European Patient Information Channel, as the industry is calling it, could be available on both the Internet and TV, and would offer on-demand information about drugs..

In the United Kingdom, doctors prescribe drugs through the National Health Service and thus, unlike in the United States, patients do not select which drugs they take.

"Customers pay a prescription price regardless of the price of the drug," said Colette McGreedy, acting chief executive for the National Pharmacy Association in England, "so it makes no point to advertise directly to consumers."

Pharma TV is "a huge way from approval," said McGreedy, who likens it to "advertising through the back door," particularly since it will only show products from the four involved companies, or diseases that their medications can treat.

There should be more information available to patients, she said, so they can feel more empowered, although the questions remain about what form that should take. "And one of the core qualities for patient information is that it's unbiased, so advertising through the back door, in our view, is unacceptable," she explained.