Violations of exhibiting and FDA rules at an American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.
We conducted a cross-sectional study of all exhibit booths for the 24 pharmaceutical companies at the 2002 American Psychiatric Association (APA) convention. We collected and categorized one of each item distributed by the companies at each booth. A total of 268 items were collected from 24 companies (median=8). The most common categories of items were "reprints or pamphlets" (37%) and "noneducational gifts" (27%), including music CDs and invitations to dinners and museums. There were a total of 16 violations of the APA's own exhibit rules: eight companies had one violation and two companies had four violations. Four companies engaged in FDA-prohibited off-label promotion; one also violated the APA code. Over half of all companies (54%) were in violation of either APA rules or FDA regulations. The APA's voluntary code has failed to adequately reduce inappropriate promotional activity at the annual APA meeting.
Lurie
Peter
P
Public Citizen's Health Research Group, 1600 20th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA. plurie@citzen.org
Tran
Tung
T
Wolfe
Sidney Manuel
SM
Goodman
Robert
R
D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004348:Drug Labeling / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D005085:Exhibitions as Topic; D037921:Gift Giving / Q000941:ethics; D006801:Humans; D040541:Marketing / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000941:ethics*; D012955:Societies, Medical / Q000941:ethics*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration