Eli Lilly is to get a strong reprimand from pharmaceutical industry regulators in the United Kingdom for ‘unbalanced’ promotion of its anti-erectile dysfunction drug Cialis. The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority issued a statement saying that Eli Lilly had brought discredit on the pharmaceutical industry through a marketing campaign on television, the internet and in brochures in doctor’s offices in the UK.

The Lilly campaign that is the focus of this reprimand is the so-called “40 over 40” campaign, which claims that “40 per cent of men aged over 40 had problems with erectile dysfunction.” The PMCPA said that Eli Lilly had published information about its erectile dysfunction treatment that failed to cite the side-effects or risks, and in a way that would have encouraged patients to seek a prescription for Cialis. The judgement is expected to be released shortly.

According to The Financial Times, the Cialis marketing was one of the most ambitious disease awareness campaigns so far conducted in the UK.

Eli Lilly has toned down its promotion of the Cialis drug and the “40 over 40″ campaign in response to this judgment and has accepted the ruling. In fact Eli Lilly agreed to stop using certain parts of its advertising campaign last month after concerns were raised by health officials. Direct-to-consumer advertising for prescription medication is not allowed in the United Kingdom however drug companies are allowed to provide information about illnesses and where to get help for them. In America prescription medications are allowed to be advertised subject to various rules and regulations.

[tags]40 over 40, cialis, cialis advertising, eli lilly, united kingdom[/tags]