The drug manufacturers cannot put advertisments which pertain to diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of appendicitis, baldness and greying of hair, blindness, bust creams or breast development, foetal sex, chikungunya, complexion or fairness, diabetes mellitus, dengue, height enhancement, HIV AIDS, sexual power, desire or performance enhancement amongst others.
Manufacturers of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs cannot claim treatment of cancer, TB, diabetes and infertility besides a number of other conditions, according to a proposed government law.
The AYUSH Ministry has come out with draft rules which seek a ban on any advertisement by manufacturers of these drugs in relation to treatment of 37 conditions like appendicitis, baldness and greying of hair, blindness, bust creams or breast development. "Manufacturer of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs or his agent acting in his behalf shall not take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any drug in terms which suggest or calculated to lead to the use of that drug for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, disorder or condition," the draft rules said. The other diseases whose treatment manufacturers cannot advertise change of foetal sex, chikungunya, complexion or fairness, diabetes mellitus, dengue, height enhancement, HIV AIDS, sexual power, desire or performance enhancement amongst others.
As per the draft rules, the manufacturers of the Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs "may" advertise the drug as per the contents recorded by the state licensing authority or drugs controller. The draft rules, put on the Ministry's website for public comments, said the application for doing advertisement of these drugs will have to be first submitted to the authority. The application should specify claims such as textual references, rationale from the authoritative books and scientific evidence regarding safety, efficacy and quality of the drug. The Centre can direct the state government to "ban, suspend or cancel" advertisements of such drugs, which are found to be "not appropriate", the draft rules said.
A senior AYUSH Ministry official told that there are certain diseases which one cannot advertise because of ethical issues under Medical Council of India (MCI). "Apart from those diseases, one can advertise but only after duly bringing it to the notice of state licensing authority and letting it record it. Either the authority will say it is outrageous, falsifying of information or misleading or it might seek clarifications or simply record. This is basically an effort to try and curb the rampant misleading claims that happens in the market," the official said.
The official said that there are many advertisements which are aired on channels which make "atrocious" claims about treating many conditions. "I do not know if we will be able to stop them but at least curtail them to some extent or try to get some element of caution. That is the whole idea," he said. He said that these are draft rules and have been put up to seek public comments and suggestions.
"Central Government may give specific directions to the state government in public interest for banning, suspending or cancelling advertisement of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani drugs, which is found prima facie not to be appropriate," they said.
The draft further said that the application for the advertisement may be rejected if its contents directly or indirectly tantamount to vulgarity or obscenity, gives false impression about the true character of drug and make a misleading or exaggerative claim about its effectiveness. It said that an appeal can be filed before the Centre against the orders of the State Licensing Authority or Drugs Controller and the decision of Central government shall be "final and binding".
"State Government may notify in the Official Gazette the officers of Ayurvedic, Siddha and Unani system to monitor the surveillance of the advertisements in the print, electronic, internet and audio-visual media and maintain printed register as well as online register of the advertisements with appropriate entries including those found inappropriate or invalid and action taken against such faulty advertisements," it said.
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