A press release crossed my desk today from Pfizer.  It immediately struck me as a mea culpa.

The company announced that it was ‘voluntarily’ withdrawing Lipitor advertising and promotion featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik, the inventor of the artifical heart, and “committing to ensuring greater clarity in the roles and responsibilities of its spokespeople in its consumer advertising and promotion.”

I immediately went to the Food And Drug Administration (FDA) website to find some reference to this action.  There was none.

The ‘voluntarily’ word in this press release is a farce at best.  The company has been under investigation by Congress who began probing the Jarvik ads who appears to be acting as a doctor giving medical advice, but isn’t licenced to practice medicine.

It turns out he is an inventor, a president of closely held Jarvik Heart Inc., he is a medical doctor, but doesn’t practice clinical medicine.

In the ad, Jarvik touts the drug’s ability to reduce the danger of heart attack and stroke in patients at risk for heart disease.  He also says he takes Lipitor. Pfizer said all of the information in the commercial is accurate, but they say nothing about what they omitted — Jarvik is not a licenced or practicing physician.

But in the Pfizer ads he appears to be acting as a doctor giving medical advice.

Pfizer says in its press release, “The way in which we presented Dr. Jarvik in these ads has, unfortunately, led to misimpressions and distractions from our primary goal of encouraging patient and physician dialogue on the leading cause of death in the world — cardiovascular disease.”

Unfortunately, Pfizer misled the public through deception — for the spokesperson they were using was not a licensed Doctor.

Nevertheless they spent as much as $139 million on the Jarvik ad campaign through October.

Sales for Lipitor, the best-selling medicine were $12.7 billion in 2007.

Jarvik in a statement said, “I accepted the role of spokesman for Lipitor because I am dedicated to the battle against heart disease, which killed my father at age 62 and motivated me to become a medical doctor,” Jarvik said in the statement, “I am not a celebrity.  I am a medical scientist specializing in advanced technology to treat heart failure who understands that no one in his or right mind would want an artifical heart if it could be avoided with preventive medicine.”

There are a few things that are very clear here, in my opinion, it’s all about the money and cutting Pfizer losses.  Pfizer has been battling dominance in the statin field ever since cheaper copies of a similar acting drug, Zocar, became available.

Congressmen John Dingell and Bart Stupak launched the probe and are investigating transparency in drug advertising aimed at consumers.

Stupak said, “We will continue to investigate the deception that occurs in direct-to-consumer advertising of medications, including Pfizer’s Lipitor campaign.”

Nevertheless Dingell said, “Pfizer’s decision was a wise one, and I am pleased our investigation prompted the removal of Lipitor ads featuring Dr. Jarvik.”

So it seems as though some kind of deal was struck.  And, not a word from the FDA, who controls direct-to-consumer advertising.

I have always said, the error of omission is far greater than the error of commission.  And so it is in this case, and always.