Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8504

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

Doctors warned: take care with freebies
The Age (Melbourne) 2007 Feb 13
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Doctors-warned-take-care-with-freebies/2007/02/13/1171128937744.html

Full text:

Samples of prescription drugs given out as freebies by doctors are often used incorrectly by patients confused by poor labelling, an independent review has found.

The review’s report has cautioned that the “starter packs” of new medications handed out by pharmaceutical marketers can be responsible for delays in vital treatment.

It outlines a series of complaints of “medicine misadventure” made to the adverse medicines events hot line over a two-year period.

“The most commonly reported problems were drug samples being supplied to patients with inadequate information regarding dosage, administration, storage and possible adverse effects,” the report, published in the industry bulletin Australian Prescriber, says.

“In addition, some patients were given excessive quantities of a drug.”

In one of 13 cases outlined, a 50-year-old woman took home an unlabelled sample of the anti-psychotic drug, Seroquel, prescribed for schizophrenia, believing it was pain relief to be taken “as required”.

A 32-year-old women was given samples of the same drug, another antidepressant Fluoxetine and the anti-anxiety drug Rivotril and took all three at once.

“Patient took the drugs for three weeks concurrently before questioning how best to take them and what the potential adverse effects were,” the report states.

A 28-year-old male patient was given four starter packs of the anti-depressant Luvox to “take the edge off” but he didn’t take the drugs because he had inadequate product information.

At least two complaints related to the controversial anti-arthritis drug Vioxx, which was withdrawn worldwide in 2004, after it was linked to increased risk of heart problems.

Drug samples were not regulated at the time the complaints were laid, but a Medicines Australia spokeswoman said a new code of practice had been introduced in December.

“Starter packs supplied from then should include that information,” she said.

Drug samples are big business, with US statistics showing manufacturers spent $US10.5 billion ($A13.55 billion) on the marketing strategy in 2001.