Advertisement of Clopidogrel in Newspapers: Is it legal or not?

This advertisement was published on Sunday, February 5, 2012 in The Daily Jang Karachi on Page. No.2.


A question may arise in minds of some pharmacists and general public that, whether that ad. is legal or not, because advertisement in any open source media definitely promotes self medication.


My view is that this advertisement is legal, because its only informing the patients about the availability and price of PLAVIX (Clopidogrel) 75mg. 

It doesn't contain anything like Indication, Class of Drug, Dosing frequency etc therefore it is useless for general public and self medication freaks.


Now have a look what The Drugs Act 1976 says about this,


Sub Rule (4) of Rule (31) of The Drugs (Licensing, Registration and Advertisement) Rules, 1976 states:


"A drug or any substance referred to in clause (ii) of Section 24, may be advertised through Press without reference to the Federal Government if it is merely intended to inform the public of the availability or the price of such drug or any substance referred to in clause (ii) of Section 24 subject to the condition that the Federal Government may prohibit such advertisement if, in its opinion, the public interest so requires."






Now have a look on what is mentioned in clause (ii) of Section 24 of The Drugs Act, 1976.


"any substance used or prepared for use in accordance with the ayurvedic, unani, homoeopathic or biochemic system of treatment or any other substance or mixture of substances as may be prescribed;"












You can google for the complete text of :
The Drugs Act, 1976
The Drugs (Licensing, Registration and Advertisement) Rules, 1976


or you can visit my previous blogs to see their complete text
kamranzaheer.blogspot.com


Regards 


Note: I am not advocating Sanofi - Aventis in any respect, I just wrote this blog for the awareness of Pharmacist.