Tylenol NAD Decision Redux

Linda Bean, a rep for the NAD, writes to me requesting a clarification to my recent item that said MacNeil’s Tylenol “now has to stop telling people that [Rapid Release Gels] is ‘medicine to be released into your system faster than before.’” Bean writes: “NAD determined that the advertiser provided a reasonable basis for a monadic ‘fast’ pain relief claim and a claim of faster pain relief as compared solely to Gelcaps … and recommended that future comparative pain relief claims be limited accordingly. NAD further recommended that the advertiser modify its ‘one of the biggest breakthroughs in pain relief’ and the ‘latest’ technology claims to avoid conveying the unsupported message that this new technology provides faster pain relief than all other Tylenol products and to limit any future comparative claim to Tylenol gel-coated caplets and tablets.” I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to figure out the difference between my characterization of the NAD ruling and Bean’s clarification of it, but I submit that it is a difference that will be loved more by pharma lawyers than the Tylenol-buying public. And yes, I also had to look up what "monadic" means.