For those who work in the health care space, there are quite a few rules and regulations that apply to how you promote and communicate services and products. For services, the rules are set down by Ahpra (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency), but for products, particularly those deemed of a therapeutic nature, the Therapeutic Goods Administration has an Advertising Code.  The Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code ensures that the marketing and advertising of therapeutic goods is conducted in a manner that promotes the quality use of the product, is socially responsible, and does not mislead or deceive the consumer.

That Code has a legislative Act and in 2019 the penalties attached to that Act were significantly increased.  The penalties apply to the organisation that’s publishing the advertising material, so it’s particularly important that our community pharmacies are aware of the Code and how they can comply – and not incur penalties.

In this episode, we chat with Emi Gosling, Principal consultant from e-MAS about how advertising and marketing of therapeutic goods is regulated for health practitioners, and how community pharmacies can adapt their clever content for use on social media all the while ensuring materials sit on the right side of all the rules.