The US FDA's Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications (DDMAC) division has asked 14 drug companies to remove 'misleading' advertisements from Internet search engines for failing to attach related risk information to the public.

The companies cited by the US FDA included pharma giants such as Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Novartis, Pfizer, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, Forest Laboratories, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and sanofi-aventis. A total of 48 drugs were involved in the US FDA action, 19 of which carry the US FDA's strongest warning, a black box, about possible side effects.

The US FDA has directed these companies to remove the ads that contain violations and respond to the agency immediately.

According to the US FDA, the ads sound as follows: 'A multiple sclerosis treatment that's different from the others or satisfied with MS medication or looking for something different?' However, they don't include any risk information.

As per US FDA, for promotional materials to be truthful and non- misleading, they must contain risk information in each part as necessary to qualify any claims made about the drugs.