The advertising team at Glaxo had better pay attention to this one.

Over in Australia, where Roche sells its Xenical diet pill over-the-counter, the government got steamed at ads shown during the Australian Idol TV show, which is watched by plenty of young girls. For those of you living alone in caves, that’s a very vulnerable age group to pitch such a product.

So Roche can’t use any DTC ads now for Xenical over concerns about unsafe use and an insufficient public health benefit. The National Drugs and Poisons Schedule Committee says the advertising was increasing pressure on pharmacists to sell the product and this could lead to inappropriate use, according to The Age, the Australian daily.

And get this: In December, a consumers group that opposes OTC status for Xenical, sent a 19-year-old woman in the healthy weight range, who shouldn’t have been sold Xenical, to 30 pharmacies. The woman was sold the drug in 24 of them. Fewer than 10 asked for her measurements, and eight of those who sold the drug gave no directions on how to use it properly. She was advised about diet and exercise in only 13 pharmacies.

In the US, Glaxo now sells Xenical OTC and calls it Alli. Glaxo is crowing over what it calls an education campaign, which will include publishing a book about weight loss. But eventually the drugmaker will run DTC ads.

Don’t you think Glaxo will be tempted to advertise Alli to, well, let’s call them select audiences. How about on American Idol? (Unfortunately, this means Pharmalot will have to watch that show to monitor the situation). Or can the Glaxo team restrain itself? What’s your bet?

[tags]Advertising, Alli, DTC, GlaxoSmithKline, OTC, Roche, Xenical[/tags]