Roche owns up to ABPI marketing rule violation

Roche Products Ltd, the UK subsidiary of the Swiss drug major, has admitted a breach of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's marketing rules. The firm was found to have advertised a prescription drug via an advertorial in the 2007 annual edition of In the Pink magazine, which promotes breast cancer awareness in the UK.

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority ruled that Roche had breached the following clauses of the Code: clause 2, bringing discredit upon, or reducing confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry; clause 9.1, failing to maintain a high standard; clause 20.1, advertising a prescription-only medicine to the public; and clause 20.2, encouraging members of the public to ask their health professional to prescribe a specific prescription-only medicine. Advertisements in the British Medical Journal and The Pharmaceutical Journal publicized the case. The full report is also available at: www.pmcpa.org.

A Roche spokesperson stressed that the case came from a "voluntary admission" by the firm of wrongdoing. She added: "whilst this was unintentional, it has highlighted an error in our processes, which have now been rectified."