5Scientific Exchanges

5.1Promotional ActivitiesFavoriteLoadingAdd to favorites1
xPromotional activities refer to member employee to stakeholder interactions that involve dissemination of product information to promote the sale of a drug. Refer to Definition of Advertising under Definitions section above. Any HCP to HCP interaction is considered to be a learning program, refer to Section 9.

  1. 5.1.1      General Principles
    1. 5.1.1.1   Members must provide full and factual information on products, without misrepresentation or exaggeration. Statements must be accurate and complete. They should not be misleading, either directly or by implication.
    2. 5.1.1.2   With respect to their promotional activities, Members agree to comply with all applicable provisions of Health Canada (HC) regulations{{2}}, the Code of Advertising Acceptance of the Pharmaceutical Advertising Advisory Board (PAAB){{3}} and the Code of Advertising Standards of Advertising Standards Canada (ASC){{4}}. A breach of the PAAB and/or ASC Codes or Health Canada Guidelines may be deemed by the IPRC to be a breach of this Code.
    3. 5.1.1.3   Occasional reasonable meals/refreshments may be offered in connection with promotional presentations by Member employees to Health Care Professionals and other Stakeholders attending the presentation. {{5}}
    4. 5.1.1.4   Members will not promote prescription medicines that are not approved in Canada or unauthorized uses of approved prescription medicines. Promotion of unauthorized prescription medicines and uses is prohibited irrespective of an employee’s function within the Member company.
    5. 5.1.1.5   Members’ promotional activities must never involve pro-active or solicited discussion of off-label indications, uses, dosages, or populations and must be consistent with the approved prescribing information in the product monograph.
  2. 5.1.2      Signing of Promotional Materials by Medical/Scientific Personnel
    1. 5.1.2.1   Member’s promotional materials are communications whose purpose is to advertise a Member’s product(s). Such communications must not be signed by Member employees who work in medical, regulatory or medical/scientific information services. Member employees who work in those areas may, however, sign the following types of communications, including without limitation{{6}}:
      1. a. Responses to medical/scientific information requested by a Health Care Professional;
      2. b. Essential, new medical safety information which has not been requested (for example, covering letters for new product monographs and letters that advise on product safety, the withdrawal of a product, new warnings, precautions and contraindications).

 

[[1]]Promotional activities refer to Member employee-to-stakeholder interactions that involve dissemination of product information to promote the sale of a drug. Refer to Definition of Advertising under Definitions section above.

Any HCP to HCP interaction is considered to be a learning program, refer to Section 9.[[1]]

5.2Non-Promotional ActivitiesFavoriteLoadingAdd to favorites

  1. 5.2.1      General Principles
    1. 5.2.1.1   The prohibition against off-label promotion is not intended to restrict the non-promotional exchange of scientific information or the right of the scientific community and the public to be fully informed concerning scientific and medical progress.
    2. 5.2.1.2   Occasional reasonable meals/refreshments may be offered in connection with non-promotional presentations by Member employees to Health Care Professionals and other Stakeholders attending the presentation{{7}}.
  2. 5.2.2      Standards
    1. 5.2.2.1   Requests for information on unauthorized products or uses will be referred to the Member’s medical department.
    2. 5.2.2.2  Legitimate circumstances exist for Members’ qualified scientific and medical personnel to communicate scientific information about their prescription medicines for optimal patient care in response to specific unsolicited queries and in the context of research activities and scientific exchange.
      1. 5.2.2.2.1 Communication of off-label scientific information must be distinct and separate from promotional activities.
      2. 5.2.2.2.2 Responses to queries concerning unauthorized products or uses must disclose clearly that the information concerns unauthorized products or usage and must also clearly state the approved product indication.
  3. 5.2.3      New Product Information
    1. 5.2.3.1   Members should take all reasonable measures to ensure that Health Care Professionals are informed in a timely manner with respect to all new product information and ensure that this product information (such as the product monograph or excerpts from it) is sent to drug information centres, poison control centres, faculties of medicine, national medical associations and pharmacies across Canada, before the product is launched{{8}}.