An Unapproved Web Site To Push Cymbalta?
1 CommentBy Ed Silverman // July 5th, 2007 // 9:23 am
There was a cryptic message on CafePharma last week about Quintiles and its NovaQuest division, which was tapped in 2002 to help Lilly promote its Cymbalta antidepressant. The message by a Lilly rep referred to a web site, which contained several studies and other materials about Cymbalta and other meds, and trumpted the Lilly drug.
“My Novaquest partner showed me this website hosted by their regional mgr (DELETED) and his regional trainer (DELETED). Isn’t this GPP inappropriate, especially from our ‘partner?’ It contains information on the competition and published medical letters as well as our Cymbalta.”
The was the mysterious site - http://careber.com/Cymbalta%20.html
Curiously, there was no info about who created or sponsored the web site, and there was no mention of Lilly or NovaQuest. So we wrote NovaQuest a note, asking whether the company was aware of this site, since it appeared to include unapproved promotional materials. This is what Quintiles spokesman Jay Johnson wrote back in a carefully crafted message:
“NovaQuest became aware of the unauthorized website several months ago and immediately requested that the site be taken down. It was NovaQuest’s understanding that the site had been removed promptly. When we received your query, we checked into it again and can confirm the site does not exist. NovaQuest acts in accordance with industry rules and regulations in carrying out its work on behalf of its customers.”
Indeed, the site can no longer be accessed. But Jay skirted the issue of whether anyone from NovaQuest had anything to do with the site, and didn’t acknowledge that the site was accessible just a few days ago. If it wasn’t connected with NovaQuest, how was the company able to ensure it was taken down so quickly?
This raises an interesting issue - the idea that quickie web sites containing unapproved materials are being created to push a med. This can be a valuable tool - a doc, for instance, somehow is steered to a temporary site which, supposedly, doesn’t contain any corporate fingerprints. This is a new challenge for compliance officers…if they’re paying attention.
John Mack
Ha, ha! Compliance officers paying attention!
That’s rich! Not even the FDA’s DDMAC is paying attention to these sorts of things happening online. See my post over at Pharma Marketing Blog: “Where’s DDMAC’s Head At?”
But “all seriousness aside,” unauthorized web sites are just the tip of the iceberg. What about social networking sites — eg, blogs, etc. — that are anonymous? Case in point: Clias Blog. It was supposedly unaffiliated with Lilly/ICOS, but used the Cialis logo and included official press releases. Upon my compliant, Lilly was able to at least remove the Cialis logo. There hasn’t been a post made to this blog since Feb 2006.