New FDA Bad Ad Campaign to Help Health Care Pros
Detect, Report Misleading Drug Ads
Will help health care providers recognize
misleading prescription drug promotion and provide them an easy way to
report it
May 11, 2010 - The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration today launched a program designed to educate health care
providers about their role in ensuring that prescription drug
advertising and promotion is truthful, and not misleading.
The Bad Ad Program is an FDA-sponsored educational
outreach effort administered by the agencys Division of Drug Marketing,
Advertising, and Communications (DDMAC), in the FDAs Center for Drug
Evaluation and Research.
The Bad Ad Program will help health care providers
recognize misleading prescription drug promotion and provide them with
an easy way to report this activity to the agency, said Thomas Abrams,
director of DDMAC.
The program will be rolled out in three phases. In
Phase 1, DDMAC will engage health care providers at
specifically-selected medical conventions and partner with specific
medical societies to distribute educational materials. Phases 2 and 3
will expand the FDAs collaborative efforts and update the educational
materials developed for Phase 1.
The FDAs traditional regulatory activities for
monitoring prescription drug promotion primarily rely on review of
promotional pieces submitted to the agency by sponsoring drug companies,
industry complaints, and field surveillance at large medical
conventions. Although these efforts are effective, the agency has
limited ability to monitor promotional activities that occur in private.
Health care professionals are encouraged to report
a potential violation in drug promotion by sending an email to
badad@fda.gov or calling 877-RX-DDMAC. Reports can be submitted
anonymously; however, the FDA encourages providers to include contact
information so that DDMAC officials can follow-up, if necessary.
For more information:
The FDAs Bad Ad Program1
The FDAs Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications2
