This site describes the licences a medicine made abroad needs before it can be sold in India. It does not name, show or describe any medicine. That is a deliberate choice, and it follows from three texts.
Promotion starts earlier than advertising
The Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices, issued by the Department of Pharmaceuticals in March 2024, opens with the definition endorsed by the World Health Assembly in 1988:
““Promotion” refers to all informational and persuasive activities by manufacturers and distributors, the effect of which is to induce the prescription, supply, purchase and/or use of medical drugs.”
The definition covers informational activities, not only persuasive ones, and it draws no line between an audience of doctors and the general public. The next clause sets the rule that matters here:
“The promotion of a drug must be consistent with the terms of its marketing approval and a drug must not be promoted prior to receipt of its marketing approval from the competent authority, authorizing its sale or distribution.”
A medicine without marketing approval in India therefore has no setting in which it may be promoted: not in a journal, not at a conference and not on a website addressed to professionals.
Offering for sale needs a licence
The Drugs and Cosmetics Act reaches the same point from the other side. Section 18 forbids anyone to
“manufacture for sale or for distribution, or sell, or stock or exhibit or offer for sale, or distribute any drug or cosmetic, except under, and in accordance with the conditions of, a licence issued for such purpose under this Chapter”
Exhibiting and offering for sale are named alongside selling. A catalogue addressed to buyers in India would come close to that line; this site stays well away from it.
The exemption for doctors is narrow
The Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 prohibits advertisements that suggest a drug for the diseases and conditions in its Schedule. Its exemption for professional material is limited to
“any advertisement relating to any drug sent confidentially in the manner prescribed under section 16 only to a registered medical practitioner”
A public website is not sent confidentially, and it does not reach registered medical practitioners only. This site therefore has no “for professionals only” gate: it contains nothing that such a gate would need to hide.
What the site does instead
- It follows the route of a medicine made abroad, licence by licence, with the rule behind each step.
- It names no medicine, shows no product, quotes no price and offers no samples.
- It answers questions from businesses and professionals through one form, by email.