HPV vaccine advertising is being pulled due to claims of false advertising
January 11, 2011 http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/210720
A recent news report claims that there has been a spate of false advertising
by Merck and GlaxoSmithKline for their HPV vaccines.
SANE VAX sent out a press release this week reporting that around the world
HPV vaccines have been falsely advertised. They state that as a consequence of
false advertising France have banned Gardasil advertising and many adverts for
Cervarix have been removed in the UK.
On the 31 August 2010, France banned advertising Gardasil as an anti-cancer
vaccine in their country. A press release went out on the 4th January 2011 from
SANE VAX entitled
Gardasil, One Less Victim of Cervical Cancer?" France says ´NO´ as they ban
Gardasil ads stating:
"Amidst all of the media hype surrounding HPV vaccines, the traditional press
has remained silent on many critical issues, not the least of which occurred on
the 31 of August 2010 in France. As of that date, Merck´s marketing partner for
the HPV vaccine Gardasil, Sanofli-Pasteur, was officially prohibited from
advertising Gardasil for cervical cancer prevention in France.
According to public documentation, the Director General of the French Agency for
Safety of Health Products (AFSSAPS) found the sponsor of several Gardasil ads to
be in direct violation of the French public health code."
India also has had problems with the HPV adverts. In December 2009 the Indian
authorities felt that GlaxoSmithKline were misleading the public in the way that
they advertisted Cervarix. The Drugs Controller General of India or DCGI; the
Drug Regulatory Authority of India pulled up GlaxoSmithKline Plc´s (GSK) for
what they called "unlawful" propagation of its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix,
through mass media.
They stated at the time that GlaxoSmithKline´s promotional advertisement
campaign had appeared in different newspapers and on television channels
announcing that the vaccine was effective against cervical cancer and this
contravenes the provisions of Indian drug laws.
The DCGI stated that the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Drugs & Magical
Remedies Act 1954, does not allow any claim to prevent or cure diseases in
Schedule J of the Act, which includes cancer and the adverts they said does just
this.
Under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, drugs sold under prescription cannot be
advertised and this includes vaccines. India only allows advertisement of
over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.
Even though the GlaxoSmithKline adverts did not refer to the name of its product
Cervarix anywhere in the ad campaign experts are reported to have said the
following:-
"Those ads clearly claim that vaccination can prevent cervical cancer, so it
doesn´t matter that they don´t name the vaccine."
It was reported that DCGI Surinder Singh was quoted to have said:-
"They (GSK) say the vaccine will be effective for cervical cancer. This kind of
advertising is not allowed"
GSK were asked by the DCGI to withdraw promotional advertisements for the
cervical cancer vaccine, because they believed the campaign to be violating
certain norms. A spokesman for GSK said: