The Food and Drug Administration on Friday faulted 14 pharmaceutical companies for “misleading” advertisements on Internet search engines. More exactly, the companies failed to distinguish product names as well as side effects, in sponsored search results.

 

According to the FDA, the ads sound as follows: “A Multiple Sclerosis Treatment That’s Different from the Others” or “Satisfied with your MS Medication or Looking for Something Different?” However, they don’t include any risk information.

 

“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 FDA looked at the das as part of its routine monitoring of Internet advertising, spokeswoman Rita Chappelle said, adding that the FDA hasn’t contacted any of the search engines where the ads have appeared because the agency doesn’t contact third parties that carry ads, even if violate agency rules.

 

The companies cited by 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.

 

The FDA wants these companies to remove the ads that contain violations and respond to the agency next week.