The UK’s Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) has reprimanded Chiesi for a misleading and unsubstantiated claim regarding the company’s Fostair beclometasone/formoterol inhaler. The authority has published advertisements in the BMJ, The Pharmaceutical Journal, and The Nursing Standard that say, “The Code of Practice Panel reported the company to the Code of Practice Appeal Board for providing inaccurate information. The Appeal Board considered that this was completely unacceptable and it publicly reprimanded Chiesi.”
According to the PMCPA, the initial case involved inaccurate information about Fostair in a sales brochure and that Chiesi continued to provide inaccurate information repeatedly after acknowledging the problem. Chiesi had been accused previously of promoting Fostair for the treatment of COPD when it was approved in the UK only for the treatment of asthma.
During a March 2014 audit, the authority said, “the Appeal Board was appalled that Chiesi had stated that a standard operating procedure had been updated when it had not.”
Read the PMCPA press release.
Read the PMCPA case summary.
