Dong-A Pharm will not be able to release ad about an oral contraceptive Myvlar (compound: gestodene ethinyl estradiol) for one month. The reason: The ad puffed Myvlar’s effects by, for instance, saying the drug could also prevent “ovarian cancer,” which was not permitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to carry in the medicine’s website.

After confirming the violation, the ministry ordered Dong-A to stop its advertisement for one month, effective last Tuesday.

The company cannot advertise the medicine from March 28 to April 27 and closed the Myvlar brand page, too, saying it is under “service checkup.”

Dong-A Pharm had operated the Myvlar brand’s website. It hired singer Hong Jin-young as the model for the ad and said it produces the effect of preventing ovarian cancer. Experts are still debating whether birth control drugs can prevent ovarian cancer. The controversy is also included in the precautions the ministry attached in permitting Myvlar.

The caution says, “There is a report that an oral contraceptive pill is likely to increase the occurrence of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, and endometrial cancer, as well as another report that the pill reduces the risk of ovarian cancer and endometrial cancer. But there is a debate going on because these results are due to differences in sexual intercourses and other factors.”

“We judged the company carried the controversial contents in its website, misleading consumers,” a ministry official said.

Dong-A Pharm took over the selling rights of Bayer’s major contraceptive drugs such as Myvlar, Melian, Minivlar, and Triquilar. Myvlar, together with Mercilon that Alvogen Korea has taken over, accounts for about 70 percent of Korea’s birth control pill market.