The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7425 p541
4 November 2006

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MHRA rules that Superdrug advertisements were illegal

Superdrug broke the law on medicines advertising earlier this year in its summer magazine, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has ruled.

Following a complaint from Boots The Chemists, the MHRA ruled that Superdrug should not have used a pharmacist to endorse licensed medicines, made exaggerated claims about sorting out all holiday health niggles and failed to include statutory information required in medicines advertisements.

Subsequently, the company was told that a shelf-edge label that included a superlative claim for Rennie Peppermint as “best indigestion relief” was also illegal.

The MHRA’s director of vigilance and risk management June Raine said: “The MHRA will not tolerate medicines advertising that creates unrealistic expectations or is misleading.”