In the UK, Eli Lilly has been recalled by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) for unethical marketing of its erectile dysfunction drug. According to the self-control body of the British pharmaceutical industry, in fact, the advertising of Cialis (tadalafil) would have violated the ethical principles of the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice. The competent Authority considered that the company had discredited the drug industry, with a marketing campaign spread on television, the internet and through leaflets distributed in the offices of British family doctors. The PMCPA accuses Eli Lilly of having disseminated incomplete information, omitting to mention the possible side effects or risks, and in any case with a language that could encourage patients to request a prescription for tadalafil. The company has already accepted the recall, which will be made public shortly, and has backtracked a month ago by eliminating the critical aspects from the campaign. Specifically, the slogan "40 after 40" suggested that the 40% of men after 40 years of age could have problems with erectile dysfunction, furthermore as a corollary the therapeutic options were proposed (without commercial name) both on the website and on the brochures distributed in the waiting rooms of the doctors' surgeries.
The Code of Practice, a self-regulatory document of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's (ABPI), is a regularly updated document which identifies a series of good rules of conduct for all situations which revolve around the promotion and communication of prescription drugs. It deals with identifying the most correct forms through which companies can contact prescribers, administrative healthcare personnel, healthcare professionals, the public, patients and patient associations. In the specific case, the advertising of tadalafil does not comply with clause 2 of the Code, the one which recalls that promotional activities and materials "should never be such as to discredit or generate distrust of the pharmaceutical industry". Examples of actions that may violate this clause are: cause harm to patient safety and/or public health; offering excessive hospitality; act in such a way as to solicit a prescription. The most probable infringements are generally represented by: launching a promotional campaign before obtaining the authorization to market a drug; improper actions leading to breach of warranties; incompetent behavior of company employees or agents; repeated infringements of the same type and in the same therapeutic area. The Code of Practice suggests how to communicate in an ethically correct manner and not only to sanction false messages, a role already covered and with wider powers by the legislation on the subject, but rather to ensure that each ABPI member does not behave in such a way as to discredit the entire category just to pursue his own subjective interest. A deontological code of the pharmaceutical industry, in line with the current progress of communication and information systems, and punctually enforced for the benefit of the entire sector. From Elizabeth Lucchesini
Source: "Pharmamarketing"
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