A study of promotional advertisements of drugs in a medical journal: an ethics perspective

Background: Pharmaceutical companies used Drug Promotion Literatures (DPLs) as a major tool to advertise their new products. World Health Organization (WHO) has set some guidelines for promotion of drug literature. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate various DPLs for their accuracy and credibility as per WHO ethical criteria.Methods: This was an observational and cross-sectional study. Total 100 drugs advertisements published in various medical journals were collected from the library of the college. Advertisements were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The selected advertisements were evaluated based on the WHO ethical criteria for drug promotion.Results: From 100 advertisements, 73 were single drug whereas 27 were fixed drug combinations. Antimicrobials (16%) were the most promoted advertisements. Only 28% of the advertisements carried references to support their claim. Out of which majority (91.78%) were from journal articles. The generic name, brand name, names of active ingredients, manufacturer, distributor and dosage regimen were mentioned in majority of advertisements. Drug interactions (12%), contraindications (22%), precautions (24%) and side effects (22%) were least mentioned in the advertisements.Conclusions: It was observed that none of the advertisement followed all the guidelines laid down by WHO. Pharmaceutical companies should follow ethical regulatory measures to promote their product in various journals. The regulatory authority must ensure the pharmaceutical companies to follow ethical guidelines for publishing various drug promotional literatures.

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 38%

An analysis of adherence to the World Health Organisation guidelines pertaining to drug promotional literature by pharmaceutical firms

Malik¹,

Anantharamu²,

Salmani³

et al. 2018

“…3 A similar trend is also seen in drug advertisements in medical journals published by many institutes and societies. 19 Main objective of this study was to critically evaluate various PDLs according to WHO criteria and identify flaws in drug promotion. In our study of PDL analysis, PDLs promoting FDCs products were more in comparison to single drug formulations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A critical evaluation of promotional drug literatures available with prescribers at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Gujarat, India

Mistry

Kanani

Thacker

2022

Background: Promotional literature provided by the pharmaceutical companies is one of the important marketing strategies to prescribe. Many of these literatures do not follow ethical guidelines and contain biased and irrelevant information that may cause irrational prescribing. So we did this study with an aim to check the credibility, reliability and authenticity of the PDLs available with prescribers.Methods: Promotional drug literatures were analyzed based on various parameters and guidelines provided by world health organization. Statistical analysis was done using Microsoft Excel.Results: A total 395 promotional drug literatures were analyzed and very few of them fulfilled the ethical criteria for drug promotion. Most of them focused on providing information about generic name, brand name manufacture company name and claims about efficacy. Few of them focused on safety of drugs as less information provided about adverse reaction, precaution and drug-drug interaction. Many of them contain space occupying unnecessary pictures.Conclusions: It can be concluded that the majority of the promotional advertisements that were given to the prescribers do not follow ethical guidelines and were not able to improve rational prescribing but only have commercial benefits.

“…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. This incomplete information can lead to irrational prescribing.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Shubha

Taj

Bindumathi

2016

Objectives: The study was aimed to evaluate and analyse the drug promotional literature distributed by pharmaceutical companies to physicians. This was done using World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for ethical medicinal drug promotion and International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) Code of Practice, 2012. Detailed analysis of claims was done. Material and Method: An observational cross-sectional study was carried out in OPD of a tertiary care hospital. A total of 194 brochures were collected and evaluated according to the WHO criteria and IFPMA Code of practice, 2012. Further claims were categorised and detailed analysis of exaggerated and false claims was done and the authenticity of the brochures was checked. Results: None of the brochures gave complete information in accordance to the WHO and IFPMA Code of practice, 2012. Majority of the claims were about efficacy (77.31%) and safety (13.91%). Seven of them were exaggerated and false. Conclusion: The study concluded that the drug information provided in the promotional brochures can be incomplete and unreliable with the questionable credibility. Hence a physician should not rely solely on the brochures. They must undergo a strict process of assessment regarding information provided, especially related to efficacy and safety.