By Felicity Ussher, 10 February 1999 17:46
NEWS The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has begun advertising prescription drugs on its Web site, after persuading the UK government to lift a ban on public drug advertisements. Until now, drug suppliers were not allowed to advertise direct to the public. But www.bmj.com has compromised by heading each ad with a warning: "This advertisement is intended for health professionals." The government's Medicines Control Agency overturned the ban on advertising last week. The UK's Consumer Association is still investigating the decision. One drug licenser, Janssen-Gilag, advertises psychosis drug, Risperdal, on the BMJ with a case scenario of a mentally unstable elderly woman. "Do you knock her out or just hit her symptoms hard? Risperdal: from psychotic to cool, calm and collected," reads the ad. The ads are accompanied by a further page of prescribing information, citing dosage and possible side effects. A BMJ spokesman stressed that the ads were the same as those appearing in the print version of the journal, which is distributed free to 118,000 UK professionals and available for around £50 per year to anyone else. "The editorial content is already available online for free, now the ads are too," he said. Janssen-Gilag publicises its contact details on its full-page online ad - which officially makes it accessible to the public. But the company stressed that it only sells to GPs, hospitals and wholesalers who have an authorised account with them. A customer service employee at Janssen-Gilag said today that no one had been misled by the ads so far, but that she would alert the medical team to the possibility of calls from unauthorised buyers in future.
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