On April 3, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent letters to 14 drugmakers warning them to stop using what it called “misleading” and “misbranded” Internet ads for 48 drug products. The agency said the online ads from a variety of manufacturers failed to provide the proper risk information.
However, for years, companies viewed the ads, which are called reminder ads and show up as sponsored search results, as acceptable because fair balance and risk information was included “one click” away on ...