Roche falls foul of ABPI code
Roche recently breached the Association
of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s code of practice by promoting Xenical (orlistat) direct to more than 14,000 patients.
Following a complaint from a primary care trust adviser in July last
year, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority decided that
contacting members of the public to advertise a prescription medicine
was a sufficiently serious matter to refer the case upwards to the PMCPA
appeal board.
The appeal board ruled that even though the letter had only been sent
to people who had registered with Roche’s XenicalMAP (motivation,
advice, pro-active support) scheme the company had been extremely careless
is sending the letter out without being sure that every recipient was
still taking the medicine.
Although the letter did not explicitly suggest that people should ask
to be prescribed Xenical, it did mention the product five times and stated: “So,
if your weight’s crept back on and you’re feeling the need
to lose a few pounds again you might want to discuss this with your GP.” |
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