VEGAS LEX discussed the critical issues relating to drug advertising during a roundtable discussion

On 13 April, VEGAS LEX hosted the roundtable discussion
“Advertising of Medicines: Good Practice Criteria?” with the participation of
FAS Russia's Department for Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition. Major
pharmaceutical manufacturers and representatives of professional associations
took part in the discussion.

On 13 April, VEGAS LEX hosted the roundtable discussion
“Advertising of Medicines: Good Practice Criteria?” with the participation of
FAS Russia's Department for Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition. Major
pharmaceutical manufacturers and representatives of professional associations
took part in the discussion.

Alexander Sitnikov, Managing Partner of VEGAS LEX, made a welcoming speech and thanked FAS Russia for the
opportunity to hold an open and direct dialogue with representatives of pharmaceutical
business.

Maria Borzova, Manager
of Life
sciences projects of VEGAS LEX, spoke
about the key interpretations of legislation emerging in the law enforcement
practice. The expert listed several indicator words, which, when used in advertisements,
may indicate a violation of the Advertising Law/Competition Law, and also highlighted
a number of ambiguous issues related to the tools for assessing the content of
advertising materials and instruments of evidence.

Nikolay
Kartashov, Head of FAS Russia’s Department for
Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition, noted the growing number of
violations of legislation concerning advertising in pharmaceutical industry and
urged the participants of discussion to treat the information communicated to
consumers more carefully. Mr Kartashov emphasized the importance of the industry
rules relating to advertising of medicines, however, noted that FAS Russia does
not support the idea of imposition of any additional restrictions. FAS Russia hopes
that manufacturers will behave in a responsible and constructive manner and that
the industry will be self-regulated in this area.

Irina
Vasilenkova, Deputy Head of FAS
Russia’s Department for Control over Advertising and Unfair Competition, Head
of FAS Russia’s Division for Control over Advertising Legislation, outlined the
FAS approaches to the assessment of the content of advertising materials and the
ways of communicating information (audiovisuals, references, notes, etc.) to
consumers. Ms Vasilenkova answered a number of questions of the round table participants,
pointing out, however, that an individual approach rather than a generalized
approach should be taken with regard to assessment of advertising materials.

In conclusion, Mr Kartashov drew attention to the opportunity
for representatives of pharmaceutical companies to attend the meetings of the Expert
Council for Application of Advertising Legislation and the Expert Council for
Application of Competition Legislation with regard to Unfair Competition. A
number of pharmaceutical market participants expressed their willingness to develop
the industry guideline (in the form of glossary/guideline) specifying the practices
that are acceptable and those that are unadvisable.

VEGAS LEX thanks all participants for their active involvement
and discussion of the issues considered during the round table.

***

For more information
on VEGAS LEX’s services in the pharmaceutical industry, please clickhere.

For more information on
VEGAS LEX’s activities in the area of intellectual property, please click here