The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is taking action against advertisers claiming that products which are not licensed medicines could have medicinal properties, with three recent rulings all finding against such advertisements. According to a report on the Out-Law.com site, the ASA issued three rulings on 22 April against advertisers who had each claimed that an intravenous (IV) drip would boost immune systems.
Two of the rulings were against advertisers who had made a link between their treatments and coronavirus, or COVID-19, while the third upheld a complaint against an advert which did not reference COVID-19 explicitly.
The complainants in all three cases challenged the adverts on the basis that they were making claims for unlicensed medical products. The ASA agreed. It said it had consulted with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in one case, against the Private Harley Street Clinic. The MHRA said any mention of coronavirus in the promotion of an IV drip product would bring the product under medicines regulations, as would any claim that implied treatment of, or protection from, the virus.
In a complaint brought against REVIV UK, the ASA found that although its IV drip product contained four licensed medicines these were not suitable for treatment of COVID-19 and so the advertiser should not have suggested they were.
Life sciences law expert Catherine Drew, of Pinsent Masons, said: “The decisions of the ASA reiterate the principle that advertising of products which are not medicines, should not contain medicinal claims. In times where there is much public concern about a virus against which there is currently no vaccine, causing a disease for which there is currently no cure – the principles are more important than ever, and as we can see the ASA are diligently carrying out their role and enforcing the rules.”
[link url="https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/asa-clamps-down-medicinal-advertising-coronavirus?utm_source=emerge&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8b0fbf6b-9412-49d2-bfe0-0c983ca74f9d"]Full Out-Law.com report[/link]