Study finds "Big Pharma" fails at self-policing ED drug advertising

The pharmaceutical industry's efforts to self-regulate its direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising are "an industry-sponsored ruse," intended to deflect criticism and collectively block new federal regulation, a study released in the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law found. The paper, titled The Politics and Strategy of Industry Self-Regulation: The Pharmaceutical Industry's Principles for Ethical Direct-to-Consumer Advertising as a Deceptive Blocking Strategy, was written by Denis Arnold, associate professor of management and Surtman Distinguished Scholar in business ethics in the Belk College of Business at UNC Charlotte, USA, with Jim Oakley, associate professor of marketing at Montana State University.

Drs Arnold and Oakley studied the marketing campaigns for erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs over a four-year period, 2006 to 2010. These products include sildenafil citrate, manufactured and marketed as Viagra in the USA by Pfizer; tadalafil, manufactured and marketed as Cialis in the by Eli Lilly; and vardenafil, manufactured by Bayer Healthcare and jointly marketed as Levitra in the USA by Bayer, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck.