Advert - AstraZeneca – Case AUTH/3585/11/21

For the misleading omission of the upper limit for the dosing of Symbicort (budesonide, formoterol fumarate) and the strong recommendation in the SPC for patients using more than 16 actuations daily to seek medical advice on the AstraZeneca medicines website; and for failing to include the non-proprietary name for three different medicines and Symbicort prescribing information or a statement as to where it could be found on the Trixeo (formoterol/budesonide/glycopyrronium) website, Astra Zeneca was ruled in breach of the following clauses of the 2021 Code:

Clause 2 - Bringing discredit upon, and reducing confidence in, the
pharmaceutical industry
Clause 5.1 - Failing to maintain high standards
Clause 6.1 - Providing insufficiently complete information such that it was misleading
Clause 6.2 - Proving misleading information which was not capable of substantiation
Clause 12.1 - Failing to include prescribing information
Clause 12.3 - Failing to include the non-proprietary name immediately adjacent to the
most prominent display of a brand name
Clause 12.4 - Failing to include prescribing information in digital material or by way of a
clear, prominent, direct single click
Clause 12.6 - Failing to include a clear, prominent statement as to where
prescribing information could be found

Advert June 2023