When planning cross-border advertising campaigns for your pharmaceutical products and medical devices, you must observe all the applicable laws of the countries where you intend to do business. As might be expected, legal requirements covering the interaction of physicians and the pharmaceutical industry differ in various regions of the world. In some countries, for instance, approval by a competent authority must be secured before a specific advertising campaign can be launched. In other countries, legal reviews are limited to the aftermath of various advertising activities.
There are also very different ways of triggering legal action against improper advertisements. In numerous countries, medical professionals employed by public hospitals are treated as public officials; relevant anti-bribery laws must thus be taken into account. Since some jurisdictions provide for strict rules which prohibit corrupt behavior in other countries, the assessment and legal evaluation of compliance issues can become extremely complex for multinationals.
To better equip you to handle the legal developments regulating ethical business interaction between medical companies and healthcare professionals around the world, we have updated our Promoting Medical Products Globally handbook. This expanded edition goes beyond Europe and North America to include country reports from the Asia Pacific region, Latin America and Türkiye.
