The Wall Street Journal on Friday examined "unbranded product advertizement" for trade name drugs, which allow drugmakers to drive television tV audience to Web sites promoting drugs without the requirement of listing the products' side personal effects in the TV ad. FDA rules state that if an advertisement does not name a drug directly, it does non need to include a listing of possible side effects. According to the Journal, the strategy is "gaining popularity" among drugmakers because itemisation the side effects "plug[s] up expensive tv time." For example, a 60-second ad for Eli Lilly's osteoporosis drug Evista spends 25 seconds itemisation side effects.
The Journal profiled two unbranded ads by Pfizer and Sanofi Aventis. The Pfizer ad is a 60-second spot in which a female quality discusses her smoking wont and tV audience are directed to the Web situation www.mytimetoquit.com. Upon visiting the Web site, consumers find a link to some other Web site for the smoking cessation drug Chantix, which includes a wide-cut listing of side effects. Chantix had sales of $883 meg in 2007 but had been "losing ground" because of recent reports linking the medication to suicide, suicidal behaviour and sleepiness. The ad first was run in 2006 -- a few months after the release of Chantix -- but a new ad for the dose appeared afterwards the drug gained in popularity. After a work linked the drugs to several accidents related to drowsiness and federal aviation regulations banned pilots from using it, the My Time to Quit ad reappeared, the Journal reports.
The Lilly ad is a 15-second spot in which viewers ar directed to the Web site web.silenceyourrooster.com. The Web site, which promotes the sleeping assistance Ambien, received more than 400,000 hits in the ad's first vII days on the air this month.
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Bob Erlich of DTC Perspectives said, "There's a danger [drugmakers] could rouse congressional ire over cute commercials that don't emphasize medical specialty." Duke University's Ruth Day, a buy at critic of direct-to-consumer ads for drugs, said the Pfizer ad and Web site provided useful information and made side effects clear.
Pfizer spokesperson Sally Beatty said, "The goal of the My Time to Quit campaign is to encourage people to take leave smoking," not to promote the company's product or get about FDA rules. She added, "My Time to Quit is intentional to encourage people wHO are thought about quitting to speak to their health care providers around the benefits of quitting smoking and available treatment options."
Rich Gagnon, of the ad agency Draft FCB, whose clients include several drugmakers, said, "Imagine paying millions to function that ad campaign and having to use up 30 seconds to heel all the problems" (Mundy, Wall Street Journal, 8/29).
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