Advert - AstraZeneca – Case AUTH/3678/8/22

• Date posted
  18 October 2023
• Sanction
  Advertisement,
• Case number/s
  AUTH/3678/8/22 - Complainant v AstraZeneca

For failing to include on the page of the printed journal advertisement where the prescribing information was not visible, reference to where it could be found; and because the advertisement misleadingly implied that all strengths of Symbicort could be prescribed for MART [maintenance and reliever therapy] when Symbicort 400/12 should be used as maintenance therapy only, and the points in small font at the very bottom of the page in question were wholly insufficient to qualify the misleading impression given and use of the higher Symbicort dose (400/12) for reliever therapy had the potential to impact patient safety, AstraZeneca 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         - Making a misleading claim

Clause 6.2         - Making an unsubstantiated claim

Clause 11.2      - Promotion inconsistent with the SPC

Clause 12.7       - Failing to include on the pages of a printed journal advertisement where the prescribing information was not visible, reference to where it could be found