Rate My Professor Barbara Mintzes

Professor Barbara Mintzes holds the position of Professor in Evidence-Based Pharmaceutical Policy at the Sydney School of Pharmacy within the Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. A leading expert in pharmaceutical policy, her research examines the effects of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs and other pharmaceutical promotions on prescribing patterns and medicine utilization. She conducts systematic reviews assessing clinical trial evidence on both benefits and harms of medicines, prioritizing patient-relevant health outcomes. Mintzes earned her PhD in Health Care and Epidemiology from the University of British Columbia and a BA. She joined the University of Sydney in April 2015 from her role as Associate Professor at UBC's School of Population and Public Health, where she was affiliated with the Therapeutics Initiative, contributing to drug evaluations for reimbursement and authoring educational bulletins on drug therapy.

Her scholarly impact is evidenced by over 11,000 citations on Google Scholar. Notable works include the co-authored book "Sex, Lies and Pharmaceuticals: How Drug Companies Plan to Profit from Female Sexual Dysfunction" (2010, with Ray Moynihan) and seminal articles such as "Influence of direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising and patients' requests on prescribing decisions: two site cross sectional survey" (BMJ, 2002) and "Pharmaceutical sales representatives and patient safety: a comparative prospective study" (Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2013). Mintzes has received prestigious funding, including a $1,846,156 NHMRC Ideas Grant in 2024 for "A stronger voice for Australian patients and health consumers: toolkit development and implementation," and an ARC Linkage Project grant. She was named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher in Primary Health Care for 2025. Additionally, she led a WHO and Health Action International project developing a multilingual educational manual on drug promotion. Mintzes teaches postgraduate courses in critical appraisal and systematic reviews, serves on editorial boards, acts as an expert witness (e.g., for Health Canada), and engages with consumer health groups.