AHA criticized for faulty marketing partnership with Bayer
The American Heart Association is facing criticism after partnering with Bayer to promote the company’s low-dose aspirin in Walmart pharmacies across the U.S., STAT reported March 9.
In the pharmacies, the AHA’s logo sits alongside Bayer’s on three-foot-tall cartons that read, in all-caps, “Approximately every 40 seconds an American will have a heart attack.” The cartons, filled to the brim with boxes of low-dose Bayer aspirin, suggest anyone can reduce their risk of MI by taking baby aspirin—a claim critics worry is misleading to the general public.
While aspirin is an established therapy for heart patients with a history of heart attack or stroke, the AHA itself has published studies suggesting the risks of the drug outweigh its benefits in the general population. When Kaiser Health News asked the AHA about the marketing bins, the AHA reportedly asked Bayer to pull the campaign from Walmart, which was displaying the bins in about a quarter of stores nationwide.
“This was a misstep,” Suzanne Grant, a spokesperson for the AHA, said. “It was a human error on our end.”
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After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.