The Internet is full of promotional ads of drugs and I am sure you thought at least once in your life of buying one because you considered it is safe for you.

 

The Food and Drug Administration however considers these ads a threat to the population as they do not present side effects as well. That’s why, the agency has sent warning letters to the world’s 14 leading drug companies asking them to pull out what the agency called “misleading” ads on Internet search engines.

 

“For promotional materials to be truthful and non-misleading, they must contain risk information in each part as necessary to qualify any claims made about the drug,” the FDA wrote in one of its letters.

 

The ads are usually found on search engine operators such as Google and Yahoo, which post links to their Web sites in a sidebar and in turn get paid by the drugmakers and interest groups.

 

The companies receiving a warning letter from the FDA were: Bayer, Biogen Idec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi-Aventis. Forty-eight drugs were involved in the FDA action, 19 of which carry the FDA’s strongest warning, a black box, about possible side effects.

 

These companies are expected to give an answer to the FDA by the end of next week.