Pharmaceutical companies that plan launches of prescription-only medicines need to be aware: there are regulatory matters in Singapore things which can interrupt your launch if they’re not sufficiently attended to. As you can see from my earlier article (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joyce-a-tan-%26-partners_earned-media-legitimate-publicity-or-product-activity-7213730770949980160-16Gr?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop ), product promotion and advertisement of therapeutic product is regulated in Singapore and you should familiarize yourself with the key issues in doing so especially for new product launches. Here’s a brief write up on this – plus a checklist that might be essential whenever formulating plans and strategies around such product launches.

Our checklist is below. These are some of the questions that a pharmaceutical company should consider and helpful information to navigate the regulatory requirements. However, it is important to note that the reference to product in this article only relates to prescription only medicines. Different requirements may apply to other classification of health products.

Key regulations and guidelines that you need to consider in relation to some of the questions raised above are Health Products (Advertisement of Specified Health Products) Regulations 2016 (and the corresponding Explanatory Guidance to the Health Products (Advertisement of Specified Health Products) Regulations 2016) as well as the Code of Conduct issued by the Singapore Pharmaceutical Industry Association (or SAPI). Please note that even though the code of conduct issued by SAPI is only applicable to member companies of SAPI, it is notable that in 2005, the Health Science Authority created a guideline on disease awareness campaign in consultation with SAPI. Accordingly, having an understanding of the Code can give you potential insights as to how regulators may look at such activities.