A Critical Analysis of Claims and Their Authenticity in Indian Drug Promotional Advertisements

Abstract

Introduction. Drug promotional advertisements (DPAs) form a major marketing technique of pharmaceutical companies for promoting their products and disseminating ambiguous drug information which can affect prescribing pattern of physicians. Drug information includes product characteristics, various marketing claims with references in support to increase its credibility and authenticity. Material and Methods. An observational study was carried out on fifty printed drug advertisement brochures which were collected from different OPDs of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital attached to Government Medical College, Amritsar, India. These advertisements were analyzed and claims were categorized into true, false, exaggerated, vague, and controversial on criteria as reported by Rohraa et al. (2006). References of DPAs in support of the claims were critically analyzed for their retrievability from web and validity pertaining to claims. Results. Out of 209 claims from 50 advertisements, only 46% were found to be true, 21% false, 16% vague, 7% exaggerated, and 10% controversial in nature. Out of 160 references given in support of claims, 49 (30%) of references were irretrievable. Out of 111 (70%) retrievable references, 92 (83%) references were found valid. Conclusion. Drug information provided in the DPAs was biased, incomplete, unauthentic, and unreliable with references exhibiting questionable credibility.

Critical appraisal of drug promotional literature using World Health Organisation guidelines

“…This unethical advertisement of drugs highlighting the positives, built misconceptions and encourages drug consumerism and contributing to irrational drug use through inappropriate prescribing. 5 Several claims regarding efficacy, safety, convenience, pharmacokinetic property and cost were observed to be quite common in our study which are in line with the findings of a similar study conducted by Mali et al in a tertiary care hospital. 10 A total of 339 claims were made in our study ranging from 1-6 per DPL.…”

“…3 Various studies have demonstrated that printed drug promotional materials distributed by the pharmaceutical companies are often biased. 4,5 Lack of time to access medical literature further complicate the way in to impartial drug information in developing countries. 6 In today's era, with the discovery of newer generations of therapeutic agents, prescribing physicians need to keep themselves updated with the ever changing scientific knowledge of medicines.…”

A cross sectional study of drug promotional literatures in a tertiary care hospital

“…Few DPLs did mention about these but it was in a very small font that could be read with difficulty which is unethical. The ratio of number of references to number of claims was not appropriate, similar observations were made in the study by Randhawa, et al 12 Only 46% of the DPLs had a complete address, same as quoted in the study by Nath S et al, which makes the traceability of the manufacturer a difficult task. 13 None of them mentioned about over dosage and other ingredients known to cause problems.…”

Critical analysis of drug promotional literature available to the medical practitioners

“…They form the major marketing techniques. 5 Due to the concise nature of DPLs, busy medical practitioners may sometimes rely on them as the primary source of drug information. They can be highly informative when it provides the authentic information in a nutshell as long as they have been critically analysed and reviewed if not, they can be misleading.…”