http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7311/470/a
BMJ 2001;323:470 ( 1 September )
News
Drug company breaks 30 year agreement on patient advertising
Carl Kovac
Criticism has erupted in the United States against drug companies that, in
violation of a 30 year old international marketing agreement,
have begun aiming their advertising of potentially addictive drugs
(used to treat children's behavioural and emotional problems)
directly at parents, rather than just doctors.
Among those companies is a UK firm, Celltech Pharma, whose US subsidiary,
Celltech Pharmaceuticals (based in Rochester, New York), markets the
company's Metadate CD, a medication for attention deficient
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in the United States.
Metadate CD is advertised in the August issue of the US monthly magazine
Ladies' Home Journal, with a mother and son under the headline
"One dose covers his ADHD the whole school day."
Over the page is what the advertisement acknowledges as an "incomplete
list" of the product's side effects, from headache to psychosis.
Like other similar medications, Metadate CD is listed in the United States
as one of the schedule II controlled substances, the most addictive
substances considered legal. Schedule I substances, including
heroin, are illegal.
There is no US federal law barring the promotion of such substances to
consumers, but in compliance with a 1971 international agreement
among drug manufacturers, such controlled substances have until now
only been advertised directly to doctors.
Terry Woodworth of the US Drug Enforcement Administration said,
"Celltech has stepped up and beyond everyone else by advertising a
drug with a high potential for abuse."
Simon Cartmell, chief executive officer of Celltech Pharmaceuticals,
defended his company's decision: "We are aware of and understand
the Drug Enforcement Administration's concern over advertising
controlled substances to patients. They want to minimise the
potential for abuse and diversion
medications falling into the wrong
hands. We feel that our advertisement is entirely consistent with
this position."
He added that many medications for attention deficient hyperactivity
disorder and other behavioural problems were of the extended release
variety, which must be taken by pupils to their schools and
administered by staff.
© BMJ 2001
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