ASCI lauds draft DMR Bill 2020, says will help curb misleading ads in healthcare

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) has welcomed the draft Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) (DMR) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and called it an important development. 

As is known, the Union Health Ministry last week released the draft Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) (DMR) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 for effective compliance. The Government has sought to introduce a stricter punishment of up to five years and a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh for such violations. 

Ads that claim cure for health and even cosmetic concerns, including cancer, short height, diabetes, change of foetal sex by drugs, improvement in size and shape of the sexual organ and in the duration of sexual performance, improvement of memory, height of children or adults and fairness of the skin are covered in the proposed Bill. 

Reacting to the proposed DMR Bill 2020, Shweta Purandare, Secretary General, ASCI, said, “It would lend strong support to ASCI’s efforts of Suo Motu monitoring of misleading advertisements in the Healthcare sector. Consequences of advertisements in violation of DMR regulations are serious and this would result in better compliance from advertisers as well as media concerned, be it an advertisement of Allopathic product or Ayush products. Apart from print and TV, it will be interesting to see the impact on advertisements on social media as well as on the advertisers’ websites. We would expect this effect to trickle to advertisements by Ayush doctors and clinics propagating ‘guaranteed cure’ as the Central Council of Indian Medicine has taken cognizance of DMR violations in the past and had issued an advisory to State Councils for their action.” 

It may be recalled that in 2017, ASCI had entered into an MoU with the Ministry of Ayush and has been suo moto monitoring print and TV media.