http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7310/415

 

BMJ 2001;323:415 ( 25 August )

News

US consumer groups allege misleading drug claims

Scott Gottlieb, New York

A coalition of US consumer groups has filed a lawsuit against Schering-Plough, the manufacturer of the allergy drug Claritin (loratadine), claiming that the company falsely advertises the benefits of the medicine.

The Boston based coalition, known as the Prescription Access Litigation project, filed a class action lawsuit accusing the drug manufacturer of misrepresenting Claritin in its advertising---causing increased demand for the drug---and of artificially inflating its price. The complaint alleges that Schering-Plough's advertising of the drug falsely depicts the benefits of the drug and how effective the drug really is.

The group filing the suit said that the advertising has made Claritin the top selling allergy medicine in the United States. Denise Foy, a spokeswoman for Schering-Plough, said that Claritin is the top selling antihistamine "because it works." She disputed the notion that the firm deceptively advertises Claritin and noted that it follows the Food and Drug Administration's regulations on drug advertising.

Last year Schering-Plough spent $111m (£79m) on "direct to consumer" advertisements promoting the allergy drug, according to the lawsuit, which said that the advertisements consistently make a false promise that Claritin works for everyone.

In fact, medical research shows that Claritin fails to provide allergy relief about half the time, and performs only slightly better than a placebo, according to the lawsuit.

Prescription Access Litigation, a coalition of more than 50 consumer, healthcare, and legal groups has filed four suits this year against large drug companies. A suit filed in May against Barr Laboratories and AstraZeneca alleged that the firms illegally kept a generic version of the breast cancer drug tamoxifen off the market, forcing patients to pay far higher costs for the brand name drug.

In a separate blow to Schering-Plough last week, another US consumer advocacy group claimed that 17 people died because of faulty asthma inhalers made by the company, millions of which were recalled (from September 1999 to March 2000) over concerns that they did not contain medicine.

Bill O'Donnell, a spokesman for Schering-Plough, said that the company had "no evidence that a patient was ever harmed by an inhaler subject to any recalls" and that "every inhaler returned to the company by a patient claiming injury and alleging the canister lacked active ingredient has been tested and found to contain active ingredient."

© BMJ 2001 ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.