UK's ABPI "admonishes" Bayer, GSK and Roche

Germany's Bayer and UK-based drug major GlaxoSmithKline have been admonished through advertisements in the medical and pharmaceutical press which highlight breaches of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's Code of Practice.

Swiss drug major Roche has also been admonished in advertisements resulting from a public reprimand by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority' appeal board for failing to provide accurate information to an earlier hearing, despite no breach of the Code being found in that case.

The PMCPA said that Bayer breached the Code by failing to comply with an undertaking in relation to a leaflet that had already been ruled against. As a result, the company was ruled in breach of clauses 2, 9.1 and 22 of the code: bringing discredit upon, or reducing confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry; failing to maintain a high standard; and failing to comply with an undertaking. The case was brought because Bayer informed the PMCPA voluntarily that a leaflet which ought to have been withdrawn, following an earlier complaint, had been displayed at the British Association of Urological Surgeons meeting in June last year.