ABBOTT y los académicos difieren por AndroGel

The Lowdown On Low T And AndroGel Promotions

A group of two dozen academics has lodged a formal complaint with the independent Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board in Canada over a promotional campaign that Abbott Laboratories is running to promote its AndroGel testosterone gel, which was approved to treat hypogonadism. They cite a newspaper ad campaign, emails sent to physicians and the ‘Low-T‘ web site.

In their letter, the academics charge that Abbott is promoting AndroGel for unapproved uses, exaggerating implied effectiveness, potentially harming public health due to cardiovascular side effects associated with the gel and violating Canadian law by failing to disclose that the drugmaker is sponsoring various ads and communications aimed at consumers and physicians.

The ad “has serious potential to lead to harm to public health, it provides misleading and inaccurate information that would not withstand any serious test of truth in advertising, and it is likely to lead to unjustified increases in health care costs…by promoting testing of men unlikely to be suffering from hypogonadism,” they write. “By redefining this condition to include signs of normal aging, Abbott is promoting this product for an unapproved use - normal age-related changes in testosterone levels.”

Among the alleged transgressions: The headline on the ad ask “Has he lost that loving feeling?” and in large text, mention a “lack of energy” and “low sex drive” (see here). Consumers are prompted to call their doctors to get tested. Meanwhile, the web site includes a quiz that also tells readers to visit their doctor and ask about a test “even if they exhibit only such non-specific symptoms as ‘falling asleep after dinner’ or ‘deteriorating work performance.’

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This is not the first time that Abbott has been criticized for its AndroGel promotions. A separate New England Journal of Medicine study found that low testosterone is much less common in older men than previously thought - and is closely identified with just nine specific symptoms (see this and this). At the time, Abbott was actively promot on its site ‘Low T’ site that low testosterone affects more than 13 million men in the US over the age of 45. The claim has since been changed (look here).

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