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Authorities stiffen penalties for bogus medical adverts

By Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-11-28 09:43

The regulation imposes restrictions on the content of medical adverts:

Medical advertisements can only include the following items: advertising institutions' names, address, ownership, category, clinics, number of beds, work hours and telephone numbers for contact.

According to the regulation, medical adverts should not contain the following items:

Names of medical technology, therapy, disease or drug;

Direct or indirect promise of cure rate;

Superstitious, obscene or derogatory information;

Use patients, medical personnel, medicine educational institutions, scientific research institutes or any other groups or organizations as proof of the effect of the medical service;

Mention the name of People's Liberation Army or Armed Police personnel;

Other practices forbidden by laws and regulations.

The regulation bans medical adverts disguised as news or medical service information.

Zhou Jun, an official with the Ministry of Health, said the ministry and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine is going to launch a thorough investigation campaign to crack down on illegal medical adverts next month.

In 2005, China's medical advertising industry income reached 7.6 billion yuan (US$950 million).

In the first nine months of this year, authorities have punished 4,644 cases of illegal medical advertising across the nation.