WHAT IS NEW IN PROMOTION OF PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS?

In October 2017 a workshop was given on “Promotion: autumn trends. Legal novelties” organized by Law Firm OMP and LLC UkrComExpo. Nikolay Orlov & Igor Ogorodniychuk, the partners of Law Firm OMP and Natalya Mozgovaya, the lawyer of Law Firm OMP were the speakers.
The requirements for the promotion of medicines allowed for advertising; requirements for advertising on television; new practice of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection for Supervision in Advertising and things like that were discussed during the event.
Igor Ogorodniychuk recalled that the legislation of Ukraine contains two concepts “information on pharmaceutical product” and “advertising of pharmaceutical product”. But the notion of promotion is absent. Pursuant to article 1 of the Law of Ukraine “On Advertising” Advertising/advertisement – an information on person/entity or products, distributed in any form with the help of any media, which is aimed to form and support knowledge of advertising consumers and their interest regarding such person/entity or product. In its turn information about pharmaceutical product is the information (among others about medicines that are not registered or are at the stage of development or introduction into production or prohibited for advertising), containing the name, characteristics, healing qualities, possible adverse reactions, that is published in editions intended for medical and pharmaceutical workers, as well as in materials distributed at specialized workshops, conferences, symposiums on medical topics.

Thus, one of the main differences between these concepts is that the advertising captures indefinite number of people, and information about the medicinal product captures only health care professionals. That is why it is not possible to design promotional materials that would be suitable for both categories of consumers. If some companies wish to do so, it is better to design promotional materials in conformity with requirements for information designated for healthcare professionals. And if such healthcare specialist gives to the patient this material, it will be his responsibility, not the responsibility of company.
Information for healthcare specialists may be provided in any format (in paper or in electronic form). But this information shall contain the required minimum, such as the name of pharmaceutical product, its characteristics, healing qualities, possible adverse reactions. The information for healthcare specialists may also contain additional data, in particularly, drawings, references, diagrams, charts. The legislation does not stipulate any restrictions in this respect, the main idea in this case is to be guided by the principles of reasonableness and consistency of item usage; comply with the requirements of legislation relating to intellectual property; avoid direct "advertising effect".

Source apteka . ua