The Discrediting OTC Ads – Articles Include Potentially Misleading Claims

A recent study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that as many as "six out of 10 pharmaceutical ads" contain "potentially misleading claims." The objective of the study was to compare claims in direct-to-consumer (DTC) television advertising with the FDA approved labeling in order to evaluate the frequency of false or misleading ads.

The United States is one of the only countries in the world that allows drug companies to directly advertised to patients or consumers through basically any medium—television, magazine, newspaper, etc. However, we recently reported that advertisements online and through social media have been a difficult and uncertain area for companies to advertise due to the lack of guidance and clarity from FDA on the issue.

To conduct the study, the authors analyzed a cross-section of TV ads for prescription and nonprescription drugs aired from 2008 through 2010 on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN broadcasts. The researchers looked only at ads between 6:30 and 7:00 pm EST.

It should be noted that advertisements of any kind for nonprescription drugs (e.g., over-the-counter) are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) not the FDA—however, FDA and FTC have a close working agreement to determine whether a nonprescription drug ad may be making an improper claim.

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