Medical device ads on YouTube violate US law, advocacy group claims

The Wall Street Journal reports, "Ads on video website YouTube for medical devices sold by Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc., and Stryker Corp. violate federal rules because they don't contain required warnings and disclosures, according to an advocacy group."

According to Prescription Project, "online videos from Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc. and Stryker Corp. tout the benefits of their devices, but do not mention the risks," the Associated Press adds. The non-profit group has submitted a petition to the Food and Drug Administration that requests that "regulators...order the companies to remove the advertisements from the web. The group also asks the agency to issue regulations specifying that online ads are subject to the same standards as television ads."

In the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, Jonathan D. Rockoff wrote that "the Boston-based group, whose backers include the Pew Charitable Trusts, challenged ads for Abbott Laboratories' Xience V...drug-coated stent, Medtronic's Prestige Cervical Disk, and Stryker's Cormet hip resurfacing technology."

For its part, "Abbott said the videos are linked to safety information, but a spokesman said the company was in the process of embedding the information into the videos," the Chicago Tribune adds.