ArticlePharmaceutical medicine2008
Analysis of US Food and Drug Administration Warning Letters: False Promotional Claims Relating to Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications.
Article in Pharmaceutical medicine, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- An Overview of Food Safety Regulatory Violations Found in Foodborne Outbreak-Linked Warning Letters Issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration.Food protection trends · 2025Article
- Content analysis of false and misleading claims in television advertising for prescription and nonprescription drugs.Journal of general internal medicine · 2014Article
- Risk Communication and the Pharmaceutical Industry: what is the reality?Drug safety · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRecent studies have suggested that there has been an increase in the number of 'warning letters' issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) despite the publication of the FDA advertising guidelines. However, limited information is available on the description of warning letters. The objective of this study was to analyse the frequency and content of FDA warning letters in relation to promotional claims and discuss the influence of regulatory and industry constraints on promotion.
methodsAll warning letters published by the FDA between 5 May 1995 and 11 June 2007 were reviewed. Warning letters related to promotional issues were included and analysed. Information related to the identification number, date of the warning letter, FDA division that issued the letter, drug name, manufacturer, specific warning problem, type of promotional material and requested action was extracted. Two independent investigators reviewed and classified each PDF file, any differences were discussed until a consensus was reached.
resultsBetween May 1995 and June 2007 a total of 8692 warning letters were issued, of which 25% were related to drugs. Of these, 206 warning letters focused on drug promotion and were included in this study: 23% were issued in 2005, 15% in 2004 and 14% in 1998. In total, 47% of the warning letters were issued because of false or misleading unapproved doses and uses, 27% failed to disclose risks, 15% cited misleading promotion, 8% related to misleading labelling and 3% promoted false effectiveness claims. DISCUSSION: There is an important variation in the number of warning letters issued in the last decade, probably because of the increasing number of drugs approved by the FDA, drug withdrawal scandals, and the publication of the FDA and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) guidelines.
conclusionWe found that benefit-related claims, such as unapproved uses or doses of drugs, and failure to disclose risks, are the main causes of FDA issued warning letters for promotional claims related to medications.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.