Patient Support programmes: Information
It is helpful for patients to receive information about the medicine they are taking and also general information about the disease itself. This information might be provided in the form of leaflets, books, websites. apps or other channels. Where the information is provided via a website, the target country will dictate whether or not access controls are necessary but any patient support material must be controlled such that it is only accessible to patients on the medicine, unless the content also meets the requirements for information suitable for the general public.
The information must be completely non-promotional, however it can usually include reference to the brand name.
Take a look at the following examples of AZ information for patients:
Consider the following example
Consider this example
In Australia an employee of Eli Lilly alleged that managers within Eli Lilly had asked sales representatives to influence pharmacists to use the “Axiron Starter Guide” to encourage patients who were prescribed another testosterone replacement therapy to ask their doctors to prescribe Axiron. Additionally, the Complainant alleged that Eli Lilly had directed sales representatives to include this conduct in their call notes and share it amongst colleagues as a success story.
The “Axiron starter guide” was an educational guide that could be provided to pharmacists for use with patients who had already been prescribed the product.
When the Committee investigated it found that this practice had been going on for at least 6 months. Eli Lilly stated that it was not a company initiated or endorsed sales strategy.
The Committee considered this to be a very serious matter – a patient support item had been misused and directed towards members of the public who were not Axiron patients. Moreover the item had been used to persuade patients treated with competitor products to switch.
Eli Lilly were fined $250,000 and had to issue corrective advertising. The Committee’s decision was upheld on Appeal.
