Japan Probes Pharma Magazine Ads Masquerading As Articles

The Japanese government is investigating whether numerous magazine articles intended to attract cancer patient may actually have been nothing more than embellished advertisements for cancer medicines and that several drugmakers paid the publisher of a monthly magazine to run the information, according to The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is determining whether the arrangement violated the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, which bans advertising of cancer drug. And the paper reports that the ministry plans to urge the pharmaceutical industry to adopt voluntary rules to prevent a recurrence, although the names of the magazine and the drugmakers were not disclosed.

The ministry began the probe because the “payment suggests it was likely there was intention of advertising the drugs by carrying the articles,” a ministry official tells the paper. The ministry has asked the drugmakers to conduct internal inquiries and plans to hold a hearing.

The magazine, which targets cancer patients, reportedly sells 70,000 copies each month and many articles quote doctors and other specialists who mention specific drugs and their effectiveness in fighting cancer, the paper writes. And sources tell the paper that the publisher receives about $4,600 to $5,600 per page for each article from drugmakers.

“Those articles were called ‘tie-up articles,’“ a source tells the paper. “Since the magazine’s circulation figures stagnated, it needed around two such articles per monthly issue to make ends meet.” The publisher planned the articles and then approached drugmakers. Doctors and professors received up to $1,000 for comments, but some say they were unaware of the arrangement, according to the paper.

The paper writes that five unnamed drugmakers admitted paying between $18,500 and $53,600 for articles that ran in 2010 and 2011. All totaled, payments from these companies amounted to nearly $127,000, although yet another drugmaker claims that about $390,000 was paid for 27 articles. Some articles were about medicines for which advertising is banned.

However, the publisher maintains nothing illegal occurred. “We included the names of the products (in the articles) as part of providing information to readers, which helps readers understand the articles better,” the publisher wrote to The Shimbum, without commenting on the payments.

Ads for certain drugs are considered illegal if the ad is designed to entice customers, the medicines are clearly named and the ad is publicly available in a magazine or other vehicle, the paper writes. And advertising cancer medicines is prohibited because of the risk of patients choosing drugs they see in ads, but may then suffer serious health problems caused by side effects.

The articles “are dangerous because they could influence a patient to make the wrong choice of drugs,” Miho Katagi, who heads the Smily ovarian cancer patient support group, tells the paper. “I know a patient who jumped on the information… and died after going to a hospital where she could receive that treatment. If it is an advertisement, it should be clear that it is.”