AstraZeneca has an unwanted hat trick of breaches of the U.K. pharma marketing code. The drugmaker completed the set after someone noticed the same compliance breach in two earlier cases, prompting the PCMPA to rule the company had brought discredit to the industry.
Last year, the PMCPA ruled AstraZeneca had breached clause two, the trigger for the severe telling-off reserved for companies that discredit the industry, and a bunch of other parts of the marketing code. The breaches related to issues including a reference to Symbicort’s generic name on the Trixeo product website. AstraZeneca used the generic name without providing Symbicort’s prescribing information.
The PMCPA’s ruling made no mention of another case about the Trixeo website that concluded in 2021. That case centered on the allegation that the website featured the brand name with the generic name underneath “which was too small to read.”
While the PMCPA publicly made no link between the two cases at the time, an anonymous complainant did make a connection and contacted the marketing watchdog. The complainant said that AstraZeneca made “the exact same website ... with the same compliance breach” live after the ruling in 2021. Two months after the 2021 ruling, the PMCPA received the complaint that triggered the second investigation.
The PMCPA opened a third investigation after receiving a complaint about the link between the earlier cases. When contacted, AstraZeneca refuted it had breached the code, arguing that the complainant had not provided any new information or evidence that would change the outcome of the historical cases.
That argument failed to quell the PMCPA panel, which explained it was unable to rule on the potential repeat offense in the second case because it can only tackle matters in a complaint. Having received a complaint about the repeat offense, the PMCPA took aim at AstraZeneca over the lack of action in the immediate aftermath of the first case.
“AstraZeneca signed an undertaking in September 2021 that gave an assurance that it would take all possible steps to avoid similar breaches of the Code occurring in the future,” the PMCPA said. “The Panel considered that it had no evidence before it that AstraZeneca had taken all possible steps following [the first case] to avoid similar breaches of the Code in the future.”
The PMCPA concluded AstraZeneca brought discredit on the industry because it “was very important for the reputation of the industry that companies complied with undertakings.”