Controversy Simmers over "Too Healthy" AIDS Ads

Activists like Marty Algaze of Gay Men's Health Crisis worry that upbeat ads for AIDS drugs may be convincing young people that they have nothing to fear from the disease, and that this may encourage the kind of risky behavior that might lead more infections. Similar concerns led the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to consider banning HIV drug ads in the city.

Earlier this year the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates the $145 billion annual US prescription business, investigated and found some ads misleading. In April the agency sent an "advisory letter" to eight or nine drug makers, warning that their ads "didn't include important limitations associated with the products," said the agency's Nancy Ostrove. The offenders were warned against making claims or suggesting things the drugs cannot really do.

Often cited was an ad for Merck's protease inhibitor Crixivan that depicted several robust hikers who seemingly had just scaled a towering mountain peak. "If you're HIV positive, Crixivan may help you live a longer, healthier life," it said. Typical of activists' responses was that of Jeff Getty of Survive AIDS: "It's not about climbing mountains. It's about IV poles, wheelchairs and pain."

Since the FDA's letter, the ads have largely vanished -- thinning out the gay magazines they once peppered, and with only the occasional torn poster still in subway stations. Newer ads contain caveats that the drugs have side effects and neither cure HIV nor prevent its transmission. But Joe Landry, publisher of the Advocate, Out and hiv plus, said it was "ludicrous" to blame the rise in unsafe sex on drug ads.

The drug companies note that the campaigns had outlived their useful lives and were being phased out even before the FDA's letter. Merck spokesperson Chris Loder said the company's direct-to-consumer ads are now "fully in compliance with the FDA." Landry said it was ironic that the drug companies pulled back "just when they needed to advertise -- because of the rise in seroconversion."

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