Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7573

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

Edwards J.
Pharma Giants Face BBB Scrutiny
Brandweek 2007 Jan 15
http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/pharmaceutical/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003532441

Full text:

NEW YORK — Abbott Labs, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer were all the subject of rulings from the advertising police Friday.

The decisions, from the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, signal that major drug companies are not afraid to challenge each other’s marketing for their over-the-counter brands.

In two cases, Pfizer lost a challenge to Johnson & Johnson’s itch-cream marketing and Abbott Labs lost a challenge to its infant formula ads from Nestle. Abbott vowed to change its advertising.

In the infant formula case, Nestle had argued that Abbott’s Ross Products division was wrong to claim that its Similac Isomil Advance was better than other brands at reducing fussiness, spit ups and gassiness in babies. In the evidence it had for its claims, Ross “did not test the advertised product,” NAD said.

In a statement, Ross said it would “follow NAD’s specific recommendations in future advertising.”

Johnson & Johnson may have only just completed its acquisition of Pfizer’s consumer brands business for $16.6 billion in cash, but that didn’t stop Pfizer from complaining about J&J’s Cortaid ads.

The NAD ruled against Pfizer’s complaint about J&J’s advertising for Cortaid Advanced 12 Hour Anti-Itch Cream. The ads in question claimed superiority over other brands for relief from itching over 12 hours.

Pfizer argued that J&J’s evidence for the claims amounted to “an indirect laboratory test” which established only that the cream remains on the skin for 12 hours.

But the NAD decided that J&J had adequate support for its claims. Specifically, “The advertiser submitted evidence that included the results of a controlled randomized, investigator blinded, head-to-head study which tested more than 70% of the market of over-the-counter 1% hydrocortisone brands.”

That type of test is the gold standard in superiority testing. NAD also noted that Pfizer failed to demonstrate that J&J’s evidence was flawed and failed to come up with better data showing different results.