Abstract

THE ACCURACY OF DRUG PROMOTIONAL ADVERTISEMENTS IN NEPAL

*Ajit Kumar Sah, Rajesh Kumar Jha, Phoolgen Sah.

Department of Pharmacology, Chitwan Medical College (P) Ltd., Bharatpur-10, Chitwan, Nepal.

ABSTRACT

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), medicinal drug promotion should be reliable, accurate, truthful, informative, balanced, up–to–date and capable of substantiation. Text and illustration contents should be consistent with scientific information. The aim of the study was to find the accuracy of drug promotional advertisements in Nepal according to the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. This study was conducted in the outpatient department (OPD) of a tertiary care hospital at Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal. In total of one hundred thirty five drug advertisements were analyzed. In three of the advertisement name of active ingredients was not mentioned while none of the brochure contained other ingredients known to cause problems. This study highlights the need of proper guidelines for drug advertisements and their implications.

Keywords: World Health Organization, medicinal drug, accurate.