In brief
On 21 July 2023 the Ministry of Health published on its website new guidelines on the advertising of over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription-free medicinal product (SOP).
Key takeaways
The purpose of the guidelines, which replace those previously issued on the subject, is to provide updated instructions on health advertising to the public, also in consideration of the availability of new means of disseminating of advertising messages resulting from the constant development of new marketing and communication techniques.
The new guidelines include several innovations compared to their previous version, including the provision of specific wording that must accompany advertising messages related to OTC and SOP medicines as well as the identification of conditions for the use of social networks as channels for the dissemination of advertising messages. As regards this last aspect, the guidelines introduce for the first time detailed instructions on the TikTok channel (in addition to those provided for Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) and specify that the dissemination of advertising messages through social networks not regulated by the same guidelines is currently not allowed.
