Two firms named for breach of UK Code of Practice

The UK's Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, the independent body which enforces the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's marketing rules, has named two firms as breaching its provisions. Galashiels, Scotland-based ProStrakan and the UK unit of Belgium's UCB Pharma were the firms found in breach by the PMCPA.

ProStrakan was the object of an anonymous complaint over an allegedly improper advertisement for its Rectogesic (glycerly trinitrate) rectal ointment. The Scottish firm was found to have allowed an advertisement to appear without prescribing information, with misleading product claims. This breach came about despite ProStrakan having only a few weeks previously been found to have breached the Code over the same improper claim for Rectogesic.

ProStrakan was ruled to have breached clauses 2 (bringing discredit or reducing confidence in the pharmaceutical industry), 3.2 (promoting a drug in a manner inconsistent with the summary of product characteristics), 4.1 (failing to include prescribing information) and 22 (failing to comply with an undertaking) of the PMCPA Code. However, additional complaints concerning the appearance on web sites outside the control of ProStrakan were dismissed and the firm protested over what it considered to be a "sustained process of complaints" by an anonymous plaintiff. The firm was reported by the PMCPA as having signed an undertaking to respect the body's ruling and to comply with its decisions.