Glaxo Pulls Cervical Cancer Ads In India: Report
5 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 24th, 2009 // 8:22 am
The big drugmaker apparently caused a stir in India by running ads to create awareness about cervical cancer, but the campaign drew complaints that GlaxoSmithKline was running fomenting fear. Glaxo, you may recall, markets Cervarix, which is used to prevent certain strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer.
The drugmaker was accused of violating India’s Drugs & Cosmetic Act and the Magical Remedies Act (interesting name, yes?), according to PharmaBiz, which cites unnamed sources saying Glaxo has now told the Drug Controller General of India that the ads will be withdrawn.
Medical experts discounted Glaxo’s claim that the ads were launched in public interest to create awareness. “Such advertisements to create public awareness are normally launched by independent bodies or public interest groups who have no commercial interest. That the GSK has commercial interest in the ad campaign is crystal clear from the fact that GSK is the one of the only two companies which have launched cervical cancer vaccine,” an unnamed ‘expert’ tells PharmaBiz.
“It is clearly the violation of Schedule J Rule 106 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. For this kind of ad, the government has to issue a special notification which did not come in this case,” Manoj Tongra, a legal expert and a drug inspector, tells PharmaBiz. Legal experts also feel that the DCGI office should have acted sooner to stop the ads.
patrons99
Wow! This post is absolutely precious. Thanks, Ed. It is quite clear that India faces some of the very same DTCA abuses that we face in our country. Perhaps our FDA would do well to take notes on how the problem was handled in India. I hope that appropriate punitive legal sanctions were issued for breaking the law. Who would ever have thought that GSK might violate the “Drugs and Magical Remedies Act”? Governments all over the world need to understand that GSK’s agenda is not just to promote its cervical cancer vaccine, but to mandate it. Never mind that it’s a magical remedy for which a condom (or abstinence) would certainly be a lot less expensive, and by many accounts, safer.
Jack Calfee
Why is GSK’s advertising an “abuse” of DTCA? I have no idea whether it violates Indian law, but it is hard to see why Indian women would be worse off is they knew more about cervical cancer and (one hopes) how to prevent it. The two HPV vaccines promise to be far more useful in poor nations, such as India, than in wealthy nations, because early cervical cancer testing and treatment is so rare. Surely, GSK’s DTCA would save lives by reducing underuse of HPV vaccines.
Justice in MI
Whatever post hoc rationale, it appears that GSK did, indeed, break Indian law.
Is this another “freedom of commercial speech” initiative? Is the real motivation to test Indian law in court?
patrons99
DTCA should be outlawed. It’s every bit as dangerous to public health as ghostwritten clinical research, ghostwritten medical practice guidelines, and ghostwritten CME.
rao
if GSK used any NGo or any other not profit organization to promote regarding cervical cancer then it will be good…
if their intention is not to promote their drugs and indian laws will not allow promotion prescription drugs strictly..
and GSK knows abut but they had taken a chance but it doesn’t work…