ARPM and others review medicines advertising in Russia

At a special session of Russia’s National Advertising Forum-2017, titled “Those who must not be named: advertising of pharmaceutical products, prohibitions and opportunities,” the principles of inter-industry self-regulation in the field of medicine advertising were discussed.

Experts of the Association of the Russian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers, the Association of International Pharmaceutical Manufacturers (AIPM) and other professional Associations, the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia, the representatives of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), the State Duma (Parliament), as well as experts in a field of pharmaceutical industry advertising discussed the issue of advertising medicines, and the direction of effective interaction of regulators, the pharmaceutical and advertising industry with the purpose of providing the consumer with qualitative advertising content.

In 2017, FAS Russia instituted more than 25 cases on advertising medicines, which used the word “fast” or derivatives from it, because of violation of Paragraph 8 of Part 1 of the Federal Law ¹ 38-FL of 13.03.2006 “About Advertising.” The AIPM’s executive director Vladimir Shipkovemphasized that the pharmaceutical and advertising industries are ready to take part of responsibility and together with the regulators ensure the proper enforcement of advertising legislation in the future.

ARPM general director Viktor Dmitriev noted that with the beginning of the ECE work we will face the problem that existed both in the European Union and in the CIS countries. In a single information field in one country, a medicine can be registered as a prescription one, in another, as an over-the-counter, and in the third it is not registered at all. He also said that the problems start from the moment when decisions are taken on the listing of a medicine or not in the OTC list. “We still have these criteria very blurred. It is not clear why one or another medicine is excluded from the list every year,” he said.

All parties are harmonious in the idea that responsible self-regulation is a fundamental factor of minimization of violations in this field, and also reduces the risk of undesirable restraining or restrictive initiatives from the regulators.

Summarizing the results of the discussion, the following decisions have been made:

•    To create an inter-sectoral working group. The working group will include the representatives of the pharmaceutical and advertising industry, FAS of Russia, as well as some legal companies with the purpose of professional discussion and finalization of the prepared data of the analytical report containing a review of the practice of FAS Russia and courts on advertising OTC medicines for the period between 2015 and 2017; the deadline is on November 15, 2017.
•    To discuss in the framework of a working dialogue with the FAS Russia and prepare a formal explanation and recommendations on the basis of a collective analytical report; until November 30, 2017.
•    To develop and agree a memorandum project on the relationship between the FAS Russia, the pharmaceutical industry and the advertising industry; until November 30, 2017.
•    To sign a memorandum of understanding; the deadline is December 29, 2017.
•    To perform regular educational activities on a constant basis in order to clarify the principles of self-regulation in the pharmaceutical industry among the pharmaceutical companies and advertising agencies.

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