Advert - Daiichi-Sankyo – Case AUTH/3504/4/21

Promotion of Nilemdo and Nustendi

 

For using claims which misleadingly implied that Nilemdo (bempedoic acid) and Nustendi (bempedoic acid, ezetimibe) could be added to any existing oral lipid lowering treatments and were generally well tolerated when they were contraindicated with simvastatin >40mg daily (information in this regard was provided in a footnote in the material at issue) and Nustendi co-administered with a statin was contraindicated in patients with active liver disease or certain elevations in serum transaminases and were thus not capable of substantiation and had the potential to adversely affect safety in patients for which each medicine was contraindicated, for implying that both medicines could be taken at any time which was not so (information in this regard was provided in a footnote) and as the non-proprietary names were not readily readable, Daiichi-Sankyo was ruled in breach of the following clauses of the 2019 Code:

Clause 2 - Bringing discredit upon, and reducing confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry
Clause 4.3 - Legibility of generic names
Clause 7.2 - Making a misleading claim
Clause 7.4 - Making an unsubstantiated claim
Clause 9.1 - Failing to maintain high standards

Advert April 2022