The situation
A campaign plan for a non-prescription medicine, asset by asset
Your non-prescription cold remedy launches in Germany and Austria in November. The agency has delivered a TV spot, six social posts with a pharmacist influencer, a sampling action at train stations and a banner that compares the product with a named competitor. Media is booked, and medical affairs wants every asset checked against the advertising rules first.
You know the broad rule: no public advertising for prescription medicines. The hours go on the detail for a non-prescription product: the mandatory information and how it is shown in each medium, what an influencer may say, whether anything may be handed out, and how a comparison must be framed. Each country answers in its own act.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Prescription medicines stay out of public advertising
- EU law prohibits advertising prescription-only medicines to the general public. Non-prescription medicines may be advertised, within limits that national law implements and in places extends.
- Public advertising carries mandatory information
- An advertisement to the public must make clear that the product is a medicine and include the information needed for its correct use and an express invitation to read the leaflet or the packaging. Germany prescribes a risk notice with fixed wording; the research confirms its form in each medium.
- Some content is banned outright
- Public advertising must not, for example, suggest that the effects are guaranteed, that health could suffer without the medicine, or that it is safe because it is natural. Endorsements by health professionals or well-known people are restricted, so influencer posts need checking against the national lists.
- No handing out medicines to the public
- EU law requires member states to prohibit the industry from distributing medicines directly to the public for promotional purposes, and limits free samples to persons qualified to prescribe. A station sampling action for a medicine needs rethinking before it is booked.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Non-prescription cold remedy launching in Germany and Austria. The campaign has a TV spot, Instagram posts by a pharmacist, free samples at train stations and a banner comparing us with a named competitor. What do the German and Austrian advertising rules require or prohibit for each?
You start with
A campaign plan for a non-prescription medicine, asset by asset
- 01
Describe each asset
List the product’s status, the assets and the planned claims. azta searches the EU medicines code, the German advertising act for medicines and the Austrian Medicines Act.
Cited research· Free - 02
Read the rules side by side
Open the German and Austrian provisions in the statute reader, in German, with their in-force status.
Atlas statute reader - 03
Draft the notes per asset
Ask for a table of asset, issue, rule and the change needed. Edit the proposed wording in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Share with medical affairs
Export to Word for medical affairs and the agency, with the cited research kept in the file.
Word export· Pro You send
Compliance notes per asset under the German and Austrian advertising rules
What you get
Compliance notes per asset under the German and Austrian advertising rules
Campaign check · draft
Cold remedy launch: advertising check per asset
TV spot. Permitted for a non-prescription medicine. The German version needs the mandatory information and the risk notice in the form required for television. The Austrian version needs the information required by the Austrian rules. Both are listed with the provisions in column C.
Influencer posts. Posts in which a pharmacist recommends the product engage the restrictions on endorsements by health professionals. We recommend removing the professional framing and adding the mandatory information to each post. The posts are advertising and must be labelled as such.
Station sampling. Handing the medicine to the public for promotion is not permitted, and the action should be dropped. Any replacement, such as a pharmacy voucher, needs its own check. The competitor banner must meet the conditions for comparative advertising and is assessed in row 9.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
18 minutes a month
At €90 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 32
- Capacity at your rate
- €2,916
- More campaign compliance checks a quarter
- 2
- Return on Pro
- 9×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- Gesetze im Internet
- Rechtsprechung im Internet
- RIS
What stays with you
- The claims you can substantiate, which come from medical affairs.
- Industry codes and association rules, which azta does not hold.
- Final approval of each asset before it runs.
Frequently asked questions
- Does it cover medical devices too?
- Yes. Ask about the product you are advertising. In Germany the same advertising act also covers medical devices and some treatments, and azta cites the provisions that apply.
- Can it check the wording of a post?
- Paste the copy into the question and ask which rules it engages. azta cites the provisions. The final judgement stays with you and medical affairs.
- How do I start?
- Five questions a month are free, no card. Canvas and Word export are on Pro.
