Guidance

Advertise your medicines

How to comply with the requirements on promoting medicines to the public and to prescribers and suppliers of medicines.

From:
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
Published
18 December 2014
Last updated
12 June 2023 — See all updates

Overview

You can advertise any over-the-counter medicine, general sales list and pharmacy medicines, to the general public.

You can’t advertise prescription-only medicines (POMs) to the general public but you can promote them to healthcare professionals and others who can prescribe or supply the product.

You can’t advertise any medicine that is not licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) or, for products in Northern Ireland, the European Commission.

You can only advertise a medicine in a territory where it is licensed. To advertise UK-wide, make sure the product(s) you are advertising are covered by licences in Great Britain and in Northern Ireland; you will need to include details of both licences in your advertisement if there are separate licences

You must follow the legal requirements when advertising.

Read the Blue Guide for detailed guidance on advertising medicines in the UK. Journalists and patient organisations should see appendix 5 and clinics offering treatment services should see appendix 6.

Your advert must include:

  • the name of the product
  • the name of the active ingredient if it contains only one
  • information about what you can use the medicine for
  • an instruction to ‘always read the label’ or accompanying leaflet
  • for products only available in Great Britain, a statement that the product is not available or not available without prescription in Northern Ireland

You must not:

  • promote a medicine use that is not covered by the summary of product characteristics (SPC)
  • make misleading claims or use pictures that may lead to a wrong self-diagnosis
  • suggest a medicine has no side-effects or that its effects are guaranteed
  • imply that seeing a doctor or pharmacist is not necessary
  • quote recommendations by scientists, healthcare professionals or celebrities
  • suggest a medicine is different from, the same as or better than any other named product
  • claim a medicine’s safety or effectiveness is due to the fact it is natural
  • state that normal health can be improved by taking the medicine or be affected by not taking the medicine
  • direct your advertising at children (under-16s) You may not provide free samples of a medicine as part of promoting the product.

See chapter 5 of the Blue Guide for more information.

You can advertise any medicine (including prescription-only medicines) to healthcare professionals and others who can prescribe or supply the product.

You need to provide specific product information including:

  • the name of the product
  • the names of the active ingredients(s) next to the most prominent display of the name
  • a summary of the information in the SPC about adverse reactions, dosage and method of use, precautions and relevant contraindications
  • the condition(s) the medicine can be used for
  • the legal classification of the product
  • details of the licence number and supplier, if advertising a product only available in Great Britain, a statement that the product has a Great Britain licence
  • the cost

Abbreviated adverts

If you’re advertising an over the counter medicine and your advert is small in size, you can put some of the information online as long as you clearly label the web address.

See annex 5 in the Blue Guide for the criteria on creating abbreviated adverts.

Sales representatives

Any sales representatives promoting a medicine must have adequate training and enough scientific knowledge about it.

The Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and other organisations provide training.

See chapter 6 of the Blue Guide for more information on advertising to prescribers and suppliers of medicines.

An advert for a traditional herbal medicine must include the sentence:

Traditional herbal medicinal product for use in [include one or more indications for the product from its registration] exclusively based upon long-standing use as a traditional remedy.

(The indication is a description of what the medicine is used for.)

Your advertising must not claim that the effectiveness of a traditional herbal medicine has been demonstrated, for example by saying ‘clinically proven’, ‘effective for’, or ‘works fast to relieve’.

Find out more on the legal requirements for advertising traditional herbal medicines in appendix 1 of the Blue Guide.

The advert for a homeopathic medicine must be based on its traditional use. Your advertising must not:

  • imply a medicine’s use is based on clinical evidence
  • claim its effectiveness has been demonstrated, for example by saying ‘effective for’, or ‘works fast to relieve’.

Find out more on the legal requirements for advertising homeopathic medicines in appendix 2 of the Blue Guide.

Get your advert checked

Talk to your trade association or self-regulatory body if you’d like someone to check your advert against the regulations. For over-the-counter medicines, the Proprietary Association of Great Britain reviews all of their members’ advertising to the public against their codes of practice.

The Committee of Advertising Practice also offers a free advice service for non-broadcast advertisements aimed at the public. Material must comply with the UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Marketing.

You must submit your adverts to pre-clearance centres if they’re intended for radio and/or television to ensure you comply with the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising.

If you’re not sure about a specific legal requirement you can ask any of these organisations or the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for advice.

MHRA advertising checks

The MHRA may ask to see advertising before it’s published for:

  • a newly licensed product
  • a product that has been reclassified, for example from prescription-only to pharmacy sale

They may also ask to see your advert before it’s published where previous advertising for the product has broken regulations.

See the  guidance for vetting of promotional material (PDF, 116 KB, 6 pages) if you’re asked by the MHRA to submit advertising for vetting

You can ask for a scientific advice meeting about your proposed advertising.

Other organisations that review advertising for medicines include:

Adverts for medicines: definition

The advertising covered by this guidance includes:

  • paid-for adverts in newspapers, magazines, billboards, flyers, etc
  • promotional information about a medicine on a company website
  • posts or text in social media such as Facebook or Twitter
  • verbal promotion by medical sales representatives
  • the supplying of samples of a medicine
  • gifts and inducements to prescribe or supply medicines
  • sponsorship of meetings attended by prescribers and suppliers of medicines

You can make factual informative announcements (including trade catalogues and price lists) as long as you don’t make any product claims. You can also provide factual answers to specific questions.

Complain about an advert

You can complain about an advert for a medicinal product to any relevant self-regulatory body or regulator or to the MHRA.

Each organisation publishes reports of investigations on their websites.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has a role in regulating the advertising and supply of medicines from pharmacies, and complaints about pharmacy practices can be made here. The MHRA and GPhC have produced a statement on our joint approach to regulation of online pharmacies.

If you are not sure which is the most relevant regulator, please send to the organisation(s) you think is most appropriate and we will agree the most appropriate lead body to investigate. We may also ask your permission to refer a complaint to another body if they have relevant expertise.

Complaints to the MHRA can be submitted by email to: advertising@mhra.gov.uk. Alternatively you can complete this online form.

You can also submit your complaint by post to the MHRA (please be aware that working from home restrictions may mean that a response is delayed):

MHRA Advertising Standards Unit
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU

You should include:

  • a copy of the advertisement or details of when and where it appeared
  • the reasons for your concern about the advertising
  • your details so that the MHRA can contact you with any questions and tell you the outcome of the case
  • information about any communication that you have had with the advertiser before complaining to the MHRA

The MHRA aims to complete an investigation within 1 month.

The advertiser may be asked to:

  • amend the advert
  • withdraw the advert
  • publish a correction
  • submit future advertising for the product to the MHRA for vetting

The MHRA usually resolves complaints with the advertiser as an informal agreement. It may result in legal action if no agreement can be reached, either through the statutory determination procedure (see chapter 9 of the Blue Guide for details) or enforcement measures.

A breach of medicine advertising regulations is a criminal offence with a possible penalty of a fine and imprisonment for up to 2 years.

See advertising investigations by MHRA for reports of our investigations.

Read the 2021 annual report on Delivering High Standards in Medicines Advertising Regulation (PDF, 373KB, 15 pages), for more information on our work.

Updates to this page

Published 18 December 2014
Last updated 12 June 2023 + show all updates

  1. Updated 'guidance for vetting of promotional material' document.

  2. The 2021 report (PDF) on Delivering High Standards in Medicines Advertising Regulation was added.

  3. Updated the section "complain about an advert".

  4. 2020 Annual Report: Delivering High Standards in Medicines Advertising Regulation now published

  5. Updated to reflect the end of the transition period, including a new version of the vetting guidance.

  6. 2019 Annual Report: Delivering High Standards in Medicines Advertising Regulation now published

  7. Updated to include link to General Pharmaceutical Council and MHRA joint statement on regulating the advertising and supply of medicines from online pharmacies.

  8. Added link to 2018 Annual Report.

  9. Updated link to tips for vetting promotional material

  10. Change MHRA address.

  11. Added new text under MHRA advertising checks

  12. Updated vetting statistics

  13. 2017 annual report on Delivering High Standards in Medicines Advertising Regulation uploaded

  14. Updated statistic on vetting

  15. Data about MHRA advertising checks updated to August 2017.

  16. Updated the achievement rate for items submitted for advertising checks.

  17. Updated the vetting performance statistic.

  18. Updated performance measure.

  19. Latest Delivering High Standards in Advertising report

  20. vetting stats for November

  21. Updated stats for Year to August.

  22. 2015 Annual Report on Delivering High Standards in Medicines Advertising Regulation

  23. First published.

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