A new ad format developed by Google for prescription drugs attaches a fixed link to sponsored results. When clicked, the link takes the browser to a page announcing the drug’s side effects, risks, and other important information, much the same way as it is printed on the drug label or inside the product’s packaging. Bayer was the first company to sign up for the new format, which it now uses for its beleaguered birth control pill Yaz.
Writer-comedian Sarah Haskins has produced another segment of her popular satire on Current TV’s Target: Women, this time calling out the absurdity of television advertising in marketing drugs to women.
A new report in the New York Times about Bayer Healthcare’s bestselling oral contraceptive Yaz brings to light some serious ethical questions surrounding the company’s testing and marketing of what some studies suggest is a potentially dangerous drug for many women.
Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits filed against Bayer Healthcare in Pennsylvania state courts were consolidated into a mass tort last week by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas judge Sandra Mazer Moss, who appointed 3 Pennsylvania attorneys to serve as liaison counsel for the plaintiffs.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has admonished German drug manufacturer Bayer for failing to test a vital ingredient used in Yaz and other birth control drugs according to American standards.
In October 2008, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) sent a letter of warning to Bayer Healthcare, Inc., citing the drug manufacturer for misrepresentations in television commercials for Yaz, an oral contraceptive. The ads featured the usual women’s health metaphors showing happy ladies frolicking in a field releasing balloons and such. But according to the FDA, the real problem with the ads included overstating the drug’s effectiveness, overselling its benefits, and not adequately communicating its possible serious side effects, including cardiac arrest and gallbladder disease.
