BRIEF—Drugmakers named for breaching UK code

Daiichi-Sankyo, GW Pharmaceuticals, Bayer, Proveca and Otsuka will be named in advertisements following breaches of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry.

Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo was found to have distributed misleading guides for its anticoagulant drug Lixiana (edoxaban), GW Pharma went wrong by promoting Epidiolex (cannabidiol) before marketing authorization was granted, while Bayer was judged to have made a misleading claim about Xarelto (rivaroxaban).

Proveca’s offence was writing to pharmacists in a letter ‘which could be seen as threatening in tone’, and Otsuka failed to communicate changes to the summaries of product characteristics and up-to-date prescribing information.