Word: celltech
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...legislative trend is at odds with a new--and unprecedented--marketing push by the makers of ADHD drugs. Until now, drugmakers have heeded a 30-year-old international treaty meant to discourage consumer advertising of psychotropic substances. No more. In one ad, drugmaker Celltech shows a smiling boy and his mom with the message: "One dose covers his ADHD for the whole school day," plus the drug's name, Metadate CD. The ad is running in a dozen magazines, including Ladies' Home Journal, which has two more ADHD drug ads in the same issue--from Shire Pharmaceuticals (maker of Adderall...
Alarmed as it is by the trend, the government's hands may be tied. Under a 1971 United Nations convention, signatory nations agreed to prohibit the advertisement of psychotropic substances to the public. But the U.S. never passed such a law. So when the DEA recently complained to Celltech about its ad, it could only express strong concern--not threaten legal action...
...Food and Drug Administration is also handcuffed. Most of the ADHD ads are not within its jurisdiction because they neither name the drug nor describe it. (Exception: Celltech's ad for Metadate CD, which the FDA is reviewing.) And even if they were, says FDA official Nancy Ostrove, the agency doesn't have the authority "to treat advertisements for controlled substances any differently" from those for other drugs. As for the drug companies, they insist their ads "are within the letter and spirit of all laws," in the words of a spokesman for McNeil...