First melt in the mouth erectile dysfunction treatment launched by Bayer today

Bayer UK got itself into a whole lot of trouble after innocently tweeting a message about the new version of its Levitra erectile dysfunction medication. The message which said "First melt in the mouth erectile dysfunction treatment launched by Bayer today", followed by a link sounds pretty harmless but it entered into a grey legal area regarding the promotion and advertising of prescription medications in the UK. The link attached to Bayer's tweet connected to press releases which mentioned Levitra and described it as dissolving on the tongue within seconds, having a minty flavor and coming in a "discreet pack".

Bayer has now deleted the tweets after it was made clear that they were technically in breach of the law by promoting the Levitra Orodispersible medication. Drug companies in the UK should only be promoting health awareness, disease prevention and general medical advice rather than specific drug cures for specific illnesses.

Bayer defended the Levitra tweet saying that they were merely commenting on an approved press release about a new medication and that the tweet was only designed to be seen by those who had opted to follow the Bayer twitter account which only had about 500 followers.

In the United Kingdom, [unlike in America] it is completely forbidden to mention the names of prescription medications in advertisements. The idea is that it should be only your doctor who decides what prescription medicine you will need and not anyone else. Other medications like paracetamol and aspirin which are not prescription medications are allowed to be advertised freely in all media in the UK.

All three of the impotence drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are prescription medications and therefore you'll never see advertisements for them in the United Kingdom. You might come across information printed by Pfizer, Lilly and Bayer which will give advice about going to see a doctor to get help for erectile dysfunction but it will not specifically mention the name of any product.