Should not encourage request for a prescription
Activities and statements should not have the purpose of encouraging members of the public to ask their health professional to prescribe a specific medicine.
Consider this example
In Australia Pfizer issued a number of ‘Community Service Announcements’ (CSAs) in general media publications about their product Lipitor (atorvastatin). The announcements were sent out at a time when a number of generic versions of atorvastatin had been launched in Australia. Pfizer said that it had received an ‘unprecedented number of calls from consumers’ regarding the availability of Lipitor. Of these calls, 25% of patients had presented a prescription for Lipitor to a pharmacist and were given false information including that the product was no longer available or had been discontinued.
The title of the announcements was: “A message to the more than 1 million patients prescribed Lipitor”.
Pfizer took the view that that its primary responsibility in releasing in the CSAs was to address the misinformation and to allow patients to make a proper, informed treatment choice.
Which of the following do you agree with?
- These announcements constitute promotion of Lipitor to the public
- The intent of the communication appears to be to encourage patients on Lipitor to request that they are continued on Lipitor
- This is a response to misinformation about a product and is therefore not promotional
- The title of the communication contains a promotional claim
Ruling
This was the subject of a complaint to the Australian Code Authority by a doctor who alleged that it was advertising of Lipitor to the public. The Committee agreed that that the announcements were advertisements. Most of the Committee felt that the communication was intended to encourage patients to ask to continue being treated with the Lipitor brand rather than another brand of atorvastatin.
The Committee agreed that Pfizer had a right to correct the misinformation being communicated about its product, but any communication to the general public should not have included a promotional claim.
Pfizer had to pay a fine of $50,000
