Medicines Act 1981

If you need more information about this Act, please contact the administering agency: Ministry of Health
58 Further restrictions on advertisements

(1)

Subject to section 60, no person shall publish, or cause or permit to be published, any medical advertisement that—

(a)

directly or by implication claims, indicates, or suggests that medicines of the description, or medical devices of the kind, or the method of treatment, advertised will prevent, alleviate, or cure any disease, or prevent, reduce, or terminate any physiological condition specified, or belonging to a class of disease or physiological condition specified, in Part 1 of Schedule 1; or

(b)

directly or by implication claims, indicates, or suggests that medicines of the description, or medical devices of the kind, or the method of treatment, advertised will prevent or cure any disease, or prevent or terminate any physiological condition specified, or belonging to a class of disease or physiological condition specified, in Part 2 of Schedule 1; or

(c)

directly or by implication claims, indicates, or suggests that a medicine of the description, or a medical device of the kind, or the method of treatment, advertised—

(i)

is a panacea or infallible; or

(ii)

is or has been used or recommended by a practitioner, nurse, or pharmacist, or by any other person qualified to provide therapeutic treatment in the course of a profession or occupation and registered under any enactment as a person so qualified, or by a person who is engaged in study or research in relation to any of those professions or occupations or the work performed by persons employed therein; or

(iii)

has beneficially affected the health of a particular person or class of persons, whether named or unnamed, and whether real or fictitious, referred to in the advertisement; or

(d)

invites correspondence or the sending of hair, blood, urine, or other bodily specimens or photographs for the purposes of diagnosis or treatment concerning any disease or physiological condition.

(2)

Every person commits an offence against this Act who contravenes any of the provisions of subsection (1).

(3)

It shall be a good defence in a prosecution for an offence against paragraph (a) or paragraph (b) of subsection (1) if the defendant proves that the matter claimed, indicated, or suggested in the advertisement is true.

Compare: 1969 No 7 ss 10, 39(3)