Yousefi Nazila, Sharif Zahra, Chahian Fateme, Mombeini Tayebe, Peiravian Farzad
Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharma Management, School of Pharmacy, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
School of Pharmacy, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Alborz, Iran.
J Pharm Policy Pract. 2022 Mar 7;15(1):18. doi: 10.1186/s40545-022-00415-1.
Pharmaceutical advertising is not only considered a key factor in the successful launch of pharmaceutical products, but is also an important source of public health information with a significant impact on consumer choice and behavior. Nowadays, advertising has become the broadest dissemination channel for various products, including medicines, which may ultimately lead to the generalization of self-treatment or mistreatment. Improper drug promotion can exacerbate unhealthy outcomes by making false or misleading claims, using inferior references, and failing to meet international standards. This study aimed to examine the requirements for pharmaceutical advertising from regulatory perspective and the compliance of Iranian pharmaceutical advertisements to related standards and guidelines. It is limited to print advertisements in Iranian national medical journals and magazines.
The present study is a descriptive-analytical study using bibliometric methods. As a first step, a comprehensive review of the national and international regulations on drug advertising was conducted and a comparison of different regulations was provided. In the second step, a checklist was created to evaluate the compliance of drug advertising with the extracted regulations.
The results of the present study show that the claims made in Iranian drug advertisements are 29.10% valid, 27.67% exaggerated, 23.10% controversial, 12.62% misleading, and 6.8% invalid. In general, we found that most medical advertisements in Iranian journals and magazines comply with national laws and regulations. However, many international requirements are not met in these advertisements.
Although we found that printed medical advertisements in Iran are roughly compliant with national regulations, there is still a long way to achieve full compliance. Monitoring processes should be improved and clearly defined penalties should be set to avoid misleading claims and their likely health consequences. It is very important in Iran to update the existing rules and regulations for medical advertisements according to international guidelines. More careful monitoring of the content of advertising and the accuracy of claims are also needed.
药品广告不仅被视为药品成功上市的关键因素，也是公共卫生信息的重要来源，对消费者的选择和行为有重大影响。如今，广告已成为包括药品在内的各类产品最广泛的传播渠道，这最终可能导致自我治疗或不当治疗的普遍化。不当的药品促销可能会通过虚假或误导性声明、使用劣质参考文献以及不符合国际标准等方式加剧不良后果。本研究旨在从监管角度审视药品广告的要求以及伊朗药品广告对相关标准和指南的合规情况。研究仅限于伊朗国家医学期刊和杂志上的印刷广告。
本研究是一项使用文献计量方法的描述性分析研究。第一步，对国内和国际药品广告法规进行了全面审查，并对不同法规进行了比较。第二步，创建了一个清单来评估药品广告对提取法规的合规情况。
本研究结果表明，伊朗药品广告中的声明有29.10%有效，27.67%夸大，23.10%有争议，12.62%有误导性，6.8%无效。总体而言，我们发现伊朗期刊和杂志上的大多数医学广告符合国家法律法规。然而，这些广告未满足许多国际要求。
尽管我们发现伊朗的印刷医学广告大致符合国家法规，但要实现完全合规仍有很长的路要走。应改进监测流程并设定明确的处罚措施，以避免误导性声明及其可能对健康造成的后果。在伊朗，根据国际准则更新现有的医学广告规则和法规非常重要。还需要对广告内容及其声明的准确性进行更仔细的监测。
