Medicines Advertising: Legal Practice

Abstract

The article explores legal practice in the field of advertising medicines. Medicines advertising is recognized as one of the mosteffective mechanisms of medicines promotion. Factors affecting the spread of medicines advertising: the public’s attitude to advertisingas a reliable source of information about medicines, distrust of doctors and the healthcare system, and, as a consequence, the prevalenceof self-medication practices. In order to protect the interests of consumers and protect economic competition (often second prevailing),the state ensures compliance with the requirements of the legislation in the field of medicines advertising. What is important is hownational courts hear cases regarding medicines advertising.Advertising is information about a person or product, disseminated in any form and by any means and intended to generate ormaintain awareness of the consumer of the advertising and their interest in such person or product. Advertising of medicinal products,like any other advertising, must comply with: the general principles of advertising; general advertising requirements (apply to all products,regardless of their type); special advertising requirements. Specific requirements for medicines advertising are: (a) specificrequirements for the permitted and prohibited medicines advertising; (b) requirements for the content of advertising of medicines (consistingof the requirements that medicines advertising should and should not contain); (c) particularities for advertising for certain ca -tegories of persons.The mandatory content requirements for medicines advertising are almost 100% specific and evaluable, while prohibitions andrestrictions often make it impossible to assess whether this effect is present in the advertising message or how it may affect a particularconsumer. Accordingly, depending on which requirements for advertising have been violated, the public authority can assess whetherthe prohibitions and restrictions have actually been violated and consider bringing those responsible for violating advertising legislationto liability. Further, if the advertisers, producers or distributors of the advertisement do not agree with the decision of the relevant publicauthorities, they can appeal to court. Most often, the plaintiff will be the advertiser, who are the field of advertising of medicines arepharmaceutical companies, drugstores. The respondent – the relevant authority. This is how the jurisprudence in the field of medicinesadvertising is formed.Almost every case about medicines advertising is about false advertising in a form of «spreading misleading information». Caseshave been considered as to the actual dissemination of misleading information and the violation of certain special requirements for themedicines advertising. In particular, cases concerning: medicines «popularization»; «exaggeration» of medicines effect; giving theproducts features of medicines; on the use of physicians’ images in medicines advertising; medicine prices.Not all cases of «spreading misleading information» about medicines go to court. The legal practice in the field of medicinesadvertising is characterized by a certain ambiguity and depends largely on the evidence presented by the parties’ representatives. Thedecisions of the courts are based on the consideration of the circumstances of each case.