[india-drug] Drug Promotion

[Sunitha Srinivas <s.srinivas@ru.ac.za>]

(Source:
http://www.phronline.net/article/detnews.asp?articleid=14539&sectionid=17
Thanks?..SS)


(Idrug participants are invited to take this discussion forward by
identifying areas that need to be reworked with respect to Drug
promotion policies in the National Drug Policy in India. Thanks.
Looking forward to the fruitful discussion. SS)

GSK promotes 'Crocin Pain Relief' through unethical route
---------------------------------------------------------

C H Unnikrishnan, Mumbai

GSK has been found promoting Crocin Pain Relief, its recently launched
brand extension of Crocin, as an OTC product by resorting to massive
print and electronic advertising. Each Crocin Pain Relief tablet,
marketed in colourful aluminum strips of 10, contains 650 mg of
paracetamol and 50 mg of caffeine.

While the media advertising does not warn the people of the dangers of
possible over consumption of the combination, the company warns the
patients to seek medical advice on the strip. The company also failed
to differentiate the new and existing Crocin brand in the ad campaign
causing confusion among the general public. The new combination was
launched in September 2003.

Although overdosage of paracetamol is a potential cause for liver
damage leading to even death, the company and the drug approval agency
have not bothered to restrict this paracetamol extra quantity and
caffeine combination product in the prescription category. 

Industry analysts are skeptical about the new product. Since the
company does not differentiate the two drugs in terms of communication
strategies, it is bound to confuse the customer who is buying the
product OTC for the first time, feels an industry source. According to
them, the drug needs the doctor's prescription for the initial shift. 

Though the company has given the dosage information on the tablet
strip, it may not adequately serve the purpose as it is only in
English. At the same time, the TV advertisements which covers the
family viewers all across the society is silent about the dangers of
the paracetamol overdosage. 

Interestingly, despite the company has overruled a doctor's
intervention by choosing the OTC route, it has mentioned on the strip
that the dosage should be "as directed by physician."

The British company, which has decided to extend the 40-year old Crocin
brand to pain killers, a category which generates the highest number of
prescriptions from doctors, has simply made this combination drug by
adding 30 per cent more of paracetamol and combining it with 50 mg of
caffeine. 

It may be recalled that the company was earlier forced to withdraw
Crocin 1000, another brand extension introduced a couple of years ago
following instances of increased side effects due to paracetamol
overdosage. The market sources feel that Crocin pain relief is nothing
but a re-introduction of the same product in a different form.

According to market sources this is part of the company's strategy to
explore different avenues encashing the brand name, as the market for
Crocin had saturated. The company has also realized that the real
potential lies in the pain management segment where the number of
prescriptions is on a rise. Recently the company also stated that it
has decided to extend the heritage of Crocin to strong pain killers
because they see a huge opportunity in this business.


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