Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11775

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: news

Xenical complaint denied
Pharmacy Daily (Australia) - registration required 2007 Oct 17
http://www.pharmacydaily.com.au

Full text:

A COMPLAINT by the Therapeutic Goods Administration about the online advertising of Xenical by Roche Products has been almost completely knocked back by the Therapeutic Goods Complaints Resolution Panel.

The TGA lodged a formal complaint in Jul about the updated Xenical TV commercial which urged consumers to consult their pharmacist.

The complaint also covered supporting website material and a downloadable brochure at www.xenical.com.au, with the TGA claiming that Roche was a “repeat offender” when it came to breaching advertising guidelines.

The TGA raised a number of matters about the TV ad, claiming that general mentions of diet and exercise didn’t constitute adequate reference to the approved indications.

However the complaints panel disagreed, finding that the ad included an “appropriate balance” between claims for the product and diet/exercise.

Most of the online content was also found by the complaints panel to be essentially similar in
content to the TV commercial and so the panel didn’t uphold this part of the complaint.

However the panel found that some of the wording of an online brochure could have conveyed the impression that the drug would have “proven, complete effectiveness” for weight loss.

It ordered that the brochure download be removed from the Xenical website.