5. Pharmaceutical Advertisement Claims Of Drug Promotional Literatures In India.

Sahila Khatun, Prakash H. Bhabhor, Tejas K. Patel, Parvati B. Patel,

Int Res Pub Med Sci 2015;1(4):29-34

ABSTRACT

Objective: To check the type of claims and reference provided in the drug promotional literature made available to the clinicians in a tertiary care teaching hospital by pharmaceutical companies. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, drug promotional literature materials were collected from the various clinical departments of a tertiary care teaching hospital. We elucidate the type of claims and evidence provided in its categorized claims into 4 types- type A (unambiguous clinical outcome), B (vague clinical outcome), C (Emotive or immeasurable outcome) and D (non-clinical outcome). We also assessed the reference provided for each claim. Result: We observed total 282 claims from the 90 drug promotional literature materials. It contains average 3.04±1.71 claims per literature. The distribution of type A, B, C and D claims were 16.67%, 42.90%, 19.15% and 21.28%, respectively. The distribution of references for type A, B, C and D claims was 87.23%, 52.90%, and 3.70% and 18.33%, respectively. Conclusion: The majority of claims was based on vague, emotive or immeasurable and nonclinical outcome.

Key-words: Advertisment, Drug promotion, Pharmaceutical company.

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