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New Trend In Drug Ads Gets Around FDA Rule

Pharma uses Web to get around revealing side effects of drugs

September 2, 2008

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When pharmaceutical companies air TV spots for a prescription drug, half the commercial may end up being devoted to a mandatory list of potential side effects. Now, some companies are finding a clever way around the advertising rule.

Sanofi-Aventis has begun airing short, cryptic TV spots for a Web site, SilenceYourRooster.com. The spots are about people who are being deprived of sleep. The ads end with a rooster, and the name of the Web site.

If consumers go to SilenceYourRooster.com, they will discover a Web site promoting the prescription sleep aid, Ambien. Since the TV commercial is about a condition and not a drug, it doesn't have to list the side effects, which for Ambien, are quite extensive.

The company does list the side effects on SilenceYourRooster.com, but saves money since it doesn't have to pay for precious airtime to list them. The 10 second TV ads cost a lot less than a typical 30 or 60 second commercial.

It appears to be working. In one week, the SilenceYourRooster.com TV spots drove 400,000 visitors to the Web site, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Pfizer, meanwhile, is buying TV spots to urge people who want to quit smoking to visit a Web site called mytimetoquit.com. The Web site promote's Pfizer's drug Chantix, which was approved to help smokers kick the habit.

The drug companies say they aren't trying to bend the Food and Drug Administration rules on listing side effects in advertisements. They say the Web sites are much more efficient in getting their message out, since more information can be delivered -- including information about potential side effects.

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