Kim Kardashian is known for relentlessly taking selfies and sharing them with her 42 million Instagram followers, but when she recently tried to use her platform to sell prescription drugs, the FDA forced her to take the photo down.
Kardashian was paid by the pharmaceutical company Duchesnay to post a selfie with a bottle of the morning sickness pill Diclegis, but didn’t include information about the possible side effects of the drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to the pharmaceutical company, insisting they immediately cease misbranding Diclegis and disseminate “corrective messages” to the audience that received the violated promotional materials.
BuzzFeed posted a screenshot of Kardashian’s post before the photo was taken down.
The caption read:
“OMG. Have you heard about this? As you guys know my #morningsickness has been pretty bad. I tried changing things about my lifestyle, like my diet, but nothing helped, so I talked to my doctor. He prescribed me #Diclegis, I felt a lot better and most importantly, it’s been studied and there was no increased risk to the baby. I’m so excited and happy with my results that I’m partnering with Duchesnay USA to raise awareness about treating morning sickness. If you have morning sickness, be safe and sure to talk to your doctor about the pill with the pregnant woman on it and find out more www.diclegis.com; www.DiclegisImportantSafetyInfo.com.”
A spokesman for Duchesnay told BuzzFeed that the post was actually written by the company, and approved by Kardashian.
Although a link to the safety information was included in the Instagram post, the FDA letter said this does not mitigate the misleading omission of risk information. The post also does not include that the drug has not been studied on women with hyperemeisis gravidarum, a condition occurring during pregnancy that results in severe or prolonged vomiting.
This is not the first time the Kardashian’s have gotten in trouble for misleading product endorsements.
The Kardashian family has been sued in the past for promoting QuickTrim, a caffeine-filled diet pill, and the Kardashian Kard, a prepaid debit card with hidden fees.
It now might be safer to assume that any product endorsed by the Kardashians isn’t worth the hype.
