Healthy Skepticism Library item: 19439

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
‘There Is A Louse In Your House… And Your Ad’
Pharmalot 2011 Mar 18
http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/03/there-is-a-louse-in-your-house-and-your-ad/

Full text:

There are oversights… and then there are oversights. Somehow, though, Taro Pharmaceuticals forgot to include all of the warnings about its Ovide lotion for treating lice in a promotional children’s book distributed at the 2010 American Academy of Physician Assistants conference in Atlanta, and in material submitted to the FDA.
What kind of warnings? Well, Ovide is not the sort of item you would want to simply hand a child. For instance, the lotion should only be used with adult supervision; the lotion is flammable, so its best to stay away from hair dryers if the child has wet hair; never use Ovide with anyone who is sensitive to the active ingredient, and if swallowed – well, you know – seek immediate medical attention. But not one word of these cautionary messages shows up in the book. Not even in tiny print on the last page.
Yet this is very much a children’s book. And it certainly is cute enough. The illustrations are professional and the rhymes are catchy: “There’s a louse in my house and you’ll never guess where! That louse in my house is right in my hair! There’s a louse in my house. My mom’s all upset. That louse in my house is making her fret!” (you can read the book here).
But without any of the risk information, which you can read here, there is a problem. “The book misleadingly suggests that Ovide is safer than has been demonstrated,” the FDA writes in a March 11 warning letter.
Perhaps Kavita Srivastava the executive director for regulatory affairs at Taro Pharma, will commission a new book. And one rhyme might go like this: “There is a louse in your ad and you do not know why? There is a louse in your ad and you did not really try! There is a louse in your ad and your ceo is upset. There is a louse in your ad and your marketing people must learn not to forget!”