Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17700

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: Electronic Source

Silverman E
FDA To Docs: Tell Us About ‘Bad Drug Ads’
Pharmalot 2010 May 11
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/05/fda-to-docs-tell-us-about-bad-drug-ads/

Notes:

link to info on FDA site:
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Surveillance/DrugMarketingAdvertisingandCommunications/ucm209384.htm

Full text:

If you’re a doctor, the FDA wants your help in identifying ‘bad’ advertisements for prescription drugs. Seriously. The agency is calling it’s new ‘Bad Ad’ program an educational outreach effort and, not surprisingly, it’s being run by DDMAC, the agency’s Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications, which issues all those warning letters and violations.
The goal of the program is to “help health care providers recognize misleading prescription drug promotion and provide them with an easy way to report this activity to the agency,” DDMAC director Tom Abrams says in a statement. Usually, the FDA finds ‘bad ads’ by reviewing promotional materials submitted for agency review, fielding complaints (often one company sniping at another) and scouring medical conventions. But Abrams acknowledges the FDA has limited ability to monitor promotional activities that occur “in private.”
So now if a doctor, nurse or another healthcare provider spots something eggregious, they can contact the FDA directly from the privacy of their own office (or even when golfing). For instance, all one has to do is write badad@fda.gov or call 877-RX-DDMAC. To see more details, look here. Given that some docs continue to harbor annoyance, if not anger, over direct-to-consumer ads, this is their chance to get even. And drug-company employees should have still more fun pointing out a rival’s violations.