OBJECTIVES: At primary care, few new drugs (ND) add value to Spanish drug formulary. Here we define a global strategy focused to improve the general practitioner’s (GPs) ND prescription habit. METHODS: Our strategy is composed by two interventions and is focused on GP. The interventions are: Generalised Intervention (GI) and Specific Intervention (SI). A New Drugs Evaluation Committee (NDEC) guided by an evidence-based standardised procedure, compared every ND in terms of efficacy, safety, posology (pharmacology??) and cost versus the best pharmaceutical option for the same indication. By means of a decision-making algorithm, ND were categorised as important, modest or null therapeutic improvement. NDEC has external peer review. The NDEC prepared an extensive evaluation and a reduced evaluation. They were posted at the institution’s web and the reduced evaluation was sent to GPs by post. The Specific Intervention (SI) was activated when a ND was negatively evaluated and the ND had a persistent high market share. SI is an academic visit (face-to-face) between a pharmaceutical adviser and each GP, who is a constant prescriber of the ND. We monitored the consumption of ND for two years (2000-2001), using the same information from the Madrid community (out of Catalonian) as a reference. RESULTS: 85% of the 16 ND evaluated are in the “little or null therapeutic improvement” category. The Catalonian GPs had a lower ND utilisation rate than the Madrid GPs (57% vs. 120%) and the reduction of the utilisation tendency observed along 2001 was higher (15% vs. 10%) in a biannual rate. On September 2001 the SI was activated for two drugs, ROFECOXIB and CELECOXIB (1,7% market share of pharmaceutical sales). We interviewed 1000 GPs and obtained a 35% reduction in their prescribing. CONCLUSIONS: It’s possible to change the use of ND using evidence-based drug information and a combined diffusion strategy of generalized and one-on-one interventions.