Drug ads misleading – even in medical journals

Drug advertising directly to consumers has been shown to be filled with inaccuracies, overstated benefits, and glaring omissions of information. Shockingly, a new research study shows that drug ads in medical journals – directly to medical doctors – also provide inaccurate information!

Researchers from Spain, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, reviewed all advertisements for antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs published in six Spanish medical journals in 1997 that had at least one bibliographical reference. Two pairs of investigators independently analyzed the advertisements to see whether the studies quoted in the ad as endorsing the advertising message actually supported the corresponding claims.

Drug companies often include such references in hopes of convincing medical doctors that their products have been “proven” effective by medical research. “We aimed to assess whether the references about efficacy, safety, convenience, or cost of antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs included in advertisements supported the promotional claims,” the researchers explained.

The researchers identified 264 different advertisements for antihypertensive drugs, and 23 different advertisements for lipid-lowering drugs in the medical journals they studied. A total of 125 promotional claims were “backed up” by references to research studies. Yet, the researchers found that 45 of these promotional statements were NOT supported by the reference, most frequently because the slogan recommended the drug in a patient group other than that assessed in the study (for instance, a drug company might advertise a drug for women, yet the study they reference in the ad involved only men).

Nearly one-fifth of all the references, (18%) were from monographic works and non-published data which that the researchers couldn’t retrieve.

“Doctors should be cautious in assessment of advertisements that claim a drug has greater efficacy, safety, or convenience, even though these claims are accompanied by bibliographical references to randomised clinical trials published in reputable medical journals and seem to be evidence-based,” the researchers warned.

The report also noted that some drug ads actually use images of various high-profile medical journals as a means of increasing the credibility of their claims.

SOURCE: “Accuracy of pharmaceutical advertisements in medical journals,” The Lancet, Volume 361, Number 9351, Jan. 4, 2003.