ABSTRACT
Background: The research and marketing of a new drug requires a lot of money by the pharmaceutical companies. Promotion through advertising brochures and leafl ets is widely used to infl uence the physicians. Most of the times, this information is the only source of new drug information for the physicians. Hence, this study to analyze the appropriateness, accuracy, and validity of promotional drug literatures was undertaken. Methods: Promotional materials were collected from outpatient departments of C. U. Shah Medical College and Hospital, Surendranagr. They were evaluated according to the “WHO criteria, 1988,” and the references cited to support the claims were checked for their validity and authenticity. The images and the pictorial content were evaluated to fi nd out any biased nature of gender representation. Results: Evaluation of the total 486 brochures showed that none of them fulfi lled all the nine criteria. Of the 308 claims, only 208 (42.79%) gave references to support the claims. Only 27 (39.13%) of the research articles among the 125 journal article cited were of high methodological quality. Among the 218 human fi gures, 144 were patients, and 103 were doctors. Female patients (62.5%) were depicted more than male patients (37.5%). Conclusion: The present study showed that pharmaceutical companies do not strictly follow the WHO guidelines and majority of the research were sponsored by companies. Hence, more stringent regulations need to be implemented for the proper promotion and dissemination of information about the new drugs.