Ad hoc 'posts' against misleading advertising on search engines in the field of health and medicine. By using them, in fact, web users risk running into "deceptive and misleading" advertising proposed by industries operating in the health sector. The alarm for the protection of cybernauts comes from an article published in the 'British Medical Journal' by Marco Masoni, Maria Renza Guelfi and Gian Franco Gensini, of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Florence.
"Starting from February 2009 - explains Masoni - we monitored for months the sponsored ads returned by Google using the keywords laetrile and essiac, two substances often called into question as a possible cure for oncological pathologies and for which there is no evidence of efficacy.
Data has shown that sponsored links from healthcare industries sometimes lead to web pages containing information that is irrelevant to the keywords. We have thus identified a particular way in which the pharmaceutical industries attract web users, to increase the number of accesses to their websites.
This technique, which favors marketing ethics over medical ethics, is by no means uncommon". "It is time – says Guelfi – for regulatory agencies to move from a reactive to a proactive approach towards the Internet, and consider not only the ad but also the keyword that produces its display".
Margherita Lopes – April 5, 2011 – Pharmakronos
Online drugs: traps for health and computers An investigation promoted by Medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency (Mhra) and Pfizer has highlighted the anomalies of drugs purchased online from unauthorized sources and the risks involved. To carry it out, the spam emails received by 65 people and the products that could be purchased through them were evaluated. Approximately one-third (32%) had received offers of prescription drugs. 25 prods have been ordered
