US FTC And Ciba-Geigy Square Up Over Pain Relief Claims

Regulators at the US Federal Trade Commission are threatening their hardest crackdown against pain relievers since the mid-1970s.

While the FTC suit against Ciba-Geigy says the firm claimed falsely that Doan's is more effective than other pain relievers in fighting back pain, and even warns that it may make Ciba run ads to correct the claims), Ciba says it will fight back. A spokesman denies that it advertised that Doan's as more effective than other pain relievers, and says it only focused on magnesium salicylate, which is not found in other leading analgesics.

However, Ciba's advertising agency, Jordan McGrath, is not being as combative. The agency has recently signed a separate consent order with the FTC agreeing not to make superiority claims for "internal analgesic products" without two clinical studies to back them up. An executive vice president said the agency is still working on this and other Ciba accounts.