Rationality and Ethics of Promotional Drug Literature in Medical Journals

Introduction: Currently irrational prescribing is a major concern to community physicians. The promotional drug literature of pharmaceutical companies in medical journal is an important mode to get the information about new drug being introduced and marketed in the country. Most of the community physician depends completely on these published dug literatures. That’s why it is important to maintain high standards of quality of drug advertisement published in medical journals and thus help physician prescribe drugs in a rational manner. Aims and Objective: To evaluate and compare the quality of drug promotional advertisement published in an Indian and international medical journal and highlight the measures to improve the quality of drug advertisement. Materials and Methods: It was an observational cross sectional study of promotional drug advertisements published in two medical journals i.e. one Indian and one international journal over a period of one year [June-2014 to June-2015]. Advertisements pertaining to parenteral fluids, milk foods, medical devices, laboratory equipment and the educational advertisements were excluded. The identified published drug advertisements were evaluated for adherence to the ethical guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO) or the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI). Results: A total of 76 and 35 medicinal drug advertisements were published in an Indian and an international medical journal respectively. There was a significant difference in compliance to WHO criteria among Indian (43.5±35.2) and international (70.6±23.8) journal [p< 0.05]. Only brand name and manufacturer details were provided in all the promotional drug literature i.e. 100% compliance. There was significant difference in the compliance to WHO criteria for active ingredient causing adverse reaction, pregnancy category, precaution and contraindication, drug interaction, dosage regimen and date of production in the two journals. Conclusion: The compliance criteria are frequently overlooked by the medical journal publishers. It is expected that the promotional drug literature may be thoroughly checked for compliance more so by the reputed Indian than an international medical journal.