FDA Demands Drug Companies Pull Ads

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NEW YORK The Food and Drug Administration has cited Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer for misleading ads. The warning letters were released late Friday, April 15, and pertain to Pfizer’s Zyrtec allergy medicine and Levitra, the erectile dysfunction drug manufactured by Bayer but marketed in the U.S. under an agreement with Schering and GSK.

The Zyrtec print ads had used the headline, “Tired of your allergy medicine not working? Good thing there’s Zyrtec.” The FDA found that theme implied that Zyrtec worked better than other allergy meds.

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