S-P Rapped Over Claritin Ads

Schering-Plough has been ordered by a US district court to tone down itsadvertisements about Hoechst Marion Roussel's Seldane (terfenadine) range of products, and its own antihistamine Claritin (loratadine).

After the Food and Drug Administration proposed that Seldane be taken off the market now that HMR's safer Allegra (fexofenadine) is registered (Marketletter September 2, 1996), S-P took out two-page newspaper ads with a headline noting that "the FDA has concluded that the benefits of Seldane and Seldane D no longer outweigh risks of potentially fatal cardiac side effects - Claritin, a safe choice, no doubt about it."

HMR filed suit, alleging false advertising, and the Kansas court has granted a temporary restraining order on the ads. Another hearing on the case is scheduled for February 19.