Only 6% of drug advertising material sent to doctors is supported by evidence

Published in the BMJ 2004; 328 : 485 27 February 2004)

Only 6% of drug advertising material is supported by evidence
Annette Tuffs
Institute for Evidence-Based Medicine Heidelberg

This paper can be accessed at: http://www.bmj.com/content/328/7438/485.2.full
 
This study, about advertising material and marketing brochures sent out by drug companies to GPs in Germany, has shown that about 94% of the information in them has no basis in scientific evidence.
 
About 15% of the brochures did not contain any citations, while the citations listed in another 22% could not be found. In the remaining 63% the information was mostly correctly connected with the relevant research articles but did not reflect their results. Only 6% of the brochures contained statements that were scientifically supported by identifiable literature.
 
The authors warn that such a high amount of misinformation puts patients' health at risk.

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