Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19893

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Harrington R
Drug advertisements
BMJ 1993 Mar 13; 306:721

Abstract:

Editor, – Is it not time for the BMJ to set the same standards for the drug advertisements it carries as it does for scientific papers?
I have been increasingly irritated by the recent series of double page advertisements for Proscar (finasteride). The strident claims of the manufacturer – MSD – are supported by two references: of these one is quoted no less than four times, but on reading the small print this reference turns out to be “data on file Merck, Sharp and Dohme Ltd” – hardly the most impartial of sources.
It is left to Minerva to give a more balanced view; reporting on a large trial of the same drug she notes “men hoping for a drug treatment for benign prostatic hypertrophy will have to wait a while longer…small improvements in a urinary flow rate and a small reduction in the size of the gland have to be balanced against negative effect on both libido and potency”.
Given Minerva’s comments I hope this is the last we will see of this particular advertisement, but in future may I suggest advertisements are refereed and that manufacturers should be permitted to quote only published material and not their own files as references?