Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Australia: Bayer´s Levitra marketing criticized

cbGnetwork | 30.06.2006 17:12 | Health | Cambridge

YOU might call it a hard bargain. Men who take the impotence pill Levitra but still fail to rise to the challenge will be given their money back.
But a leading specialist says this marketing thrust is unethical because it creates unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of drugs.

June 30, 2006, Sydney Morning Herald

Australia: Bayer´s Levitra marketing criticized
Stand up and be counted - love drug that comes with a money-back guarantee

YOU might call it a hard bargain. Men who take the impotence pill Levitra but still fail to rise to the challenge will be given their money back.
But a leading specialist says this marketing thrust is unethical because it creates unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness of drugs.

In advertising to the medical profession, which uses pictures of bananas to represent the men's before and after state, the manufacturer, Bayer HealthCare, urges doctors to hand out the "Levitra guarantee" with prescriptions for the drug, which costs about $70 for a four pack and is one of two competitors to Viagra.

Meanwhile, a campaign using the same suggestive imagery is running in the consumer press, encouraging men to register online at www.when-now.com, where they can request a "performance pack" to be sent to their doctor, with whom they then make an appointment.

But nowhere in the consumer advertisements or on the website is Levitra mentioned by name - this sidesteps a ban on promoting prescription drugs to patients.

The deal, which runs until September and is limited to one prescription per patient, was an attempt to win market share from competitors Viagra and Cialis, said Bayer's medical director, Dr Jeff Hassall.

No corroborative evidence would be required of men's failure to achieve satisfaction, he said. "It's just on the word of the patient."

Studies suggested the drug, which is designed to increase blood flow to the penis, was effective for 80 per cent of men prescribed it, Dr Hassall said. But in similar schemes the company has run in Scandinavia, only about 2 per cent of patients applied for a refund.

Bayer was fined $100,000 last year by the industry self-regulator, Medicines Australia, for promoting Levitra directly to men in an earlier version of its website. However, Dr Hassall said the refund scheme met industry standards. "We consider this a totally appropriate and ethical initiative that helps both the doctor and the patient," he said. The objective was "to remove one of the barriers to patients obtaining treatment".

A professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Newcastle, David Henry, said offering patients their money back set a dangerous precedent because it set up the expectation that medicines were "purely a commodity" like any other consumer purchase.

"It does cross the line because something that changes a doctor's decision about what's the best treatment for a patient has got to be undesirable," Professor Henry said. (Julie Robotham Medical Editor)

more information:
FDA Orders Levitra Ad Off the Air
Australia: Plug pulled on Bayer Levitra campaign
Brazil: Levitra given to football fans (spanish)

Coalition against BAYER Dangers
www.CBGnetwork.org
 CBGnetwork@aol.com
Tel: (+49) 211-333 911 Fax: (+49) 211-333 940
please send an e-mail for receiving the English newsletter Keycode BAYER free of charge

Advisory Board
Prof. Juergen Junginger, designer, Krefeld,
Prof. Dr. Juergen Rochlitz, chemist, former member of the Bundestag, Burgwald
Wolfram Esche, attorney, Cologne
Dr. Sigrid Mueller, pharmacologist, Bremen
Eva Bulling-Schroeter, member of the Bundestag, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Anton Schneider, biologist, Neubeuern
Dorothee Soelle, theologian, Hamburg (died 2003)
Dr. Janis Schmelzer, historian, Berlin
Dr. Erika Abczynski, pediatrician, Dormagen

cbGnetwork
- e-mail: CBGnetwork@aol.com
- Homepage: http://www.CBGnetwork.org

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech