Abstract
This work intended to analyze the advertising of medicines requiring medical prescription, divulged into three journals of the neurology and cardiology areas addressed to healthcare professionals. The analysis was based on current legislation, among other criteria, as well as specific literature. The presence of the following items was investigated: registration number, drug name, specific indications, contraindications; cautions and warnings; adverse reactions; possible side effects; posology; legibility of technical-scientific information and bibliographic references, phrases and/or expressions about the medication benefits, as compared to other drugs; safety warnings, healing promises and pictures of people smiling, and the quotations confirmation based on bibliographic references. Among the evaluated legal criteria, it was observed the absence of legibility in technical-scientific information in 85% of advertisements; absence of side effects in 23%; absence of cautions and warnings in 15%; of contraindications in 12.8%; of posology in 6.4%; of registration numbers in 2.7% and of the Common Brazilian Denomination/Common International Denomination (Denominação Comum Brasileira/Denominação Comum Internacional - DCB/DCI) in 0.6%. Out of 130 statements respecting advantages face to others drugs, 23.8% were not confirmed and out of 48 divulged safety messages, 41.7% could not be found in quoted references. The pictures of people smiling was a resource used in 42.2% of advertisements. Out of 1362 references analyzed, 19.7% were not found and 37.1% of quoted affirmations weren't confirmed.
Highlights
The commercial promotion of medicines refers to “all informative and persuasive activities developed by medicines producers, in order to induce their prescription, provision, acquisition or utilization” (SOBRAVIME, 2001).According to Jesus (2006), the same pharmaceuti cal industry which invests millions in research looking for the healing of people, invests very high amountsD
Another study has concluded that 50% of adver tisements in medical journals do not present the warnings and precautions respecting the use of respective products, and 40% of them do not include neither contraindications, nor adverse reactions (Barros, Joany, 2002), being so in complete disagreement with the ethical criteria for me dicines advertising that was proposed by WHO (World Health Organization), to assure consumers’ safety and rights (WHO, 1988)
These results demonstrate that many pharmaceutical advertisements violate the RDC n. 102 in its article 15th, which specifies that “The quotations, tables and other illustration extracted from scientific publications and utilized in any advertisement, publicity or promotion, should be faithfully reproduced and specify the complete bibliographical reference” (Brasil, 2000)
Summary
According to Jesus (2006), the same pharmaceuti cal industry which invests millions in research looking for the healing of people, invests very high amounts. Another study has concluded that 50% of adver tisements in medical journals do not present the warnings and precautions respecting the use of respective products, and 40% of them do not include neither contraindications, nor adverse reactions (Barros, Joany, 2002), being so in complete disagreement with the ethical criteria for me dicines advertising that was proposed by WHO (World Health Organization), to assure consumers’ safety and rights (WHO, 1988). It is obvious that the divulgence of tendentious advertising campaigns, whose objectives are of strictly commercial nature, stimulates the growing irrational use of medicines It is evident the necessity of reevaluation of current legislation, mainly the one about the advertising of medicines sold exclusively under prescription, which should be addressed exclusively to physicians, and, ne vertheless, continues to be addressed by companies to outsider public, by means of diverse medias, in a way to become them more effective and with lower probability of subjective interpretations (Fagundes et al, 2007)
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