New UK Advertising Regs Implement EU Law

The UK Medicines (Advertising) Regulations 1994 and the Medicines (Monitoring of Advertising) Regulations 1994, which implement the European Directive on the Advertising of Medicines for Human Use (92/28/EEC), have been discussed in MAIL, the Medicines Control Agency updating service.

The new Regulations supplement and reinforce existing controls under the Medicines Act, and ensure that medicines are promoted only in accordance with their marketing authorizations. They replace SI 1978/1020 and disapply SI 1978/ 41 for relevant medicines, requiring advertising to be accurate, up-to-date and not misleading. Specifically, the regulations:

- set out license holders' duties regarding advertising and collection of information;