Kien Trung Trinh, senior attorney-at-law, and Tu Ngoc Trinh, attorney-at-law, in Tilleke & Gibbins’ Hanoi office, have co-authored the Vietnam chapter of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Pharmaceutical Advertising 2015 (12th edition), a Q&A-style guide that provides practical, cross-border insight into pharmaceutical advertising across 35 jurisdictions. The Vietnam chapter covers the following main topics:

• Medicinal Products in General: Laws and codes of practice, definition of “advertising,” company compliance arrangements, standard operating procedures, regulatory or industry authority approval, penalties for noncompliance, relationship between self-regulatory processes and function of competent authorities, and unfair competition.
• Providing Information Prior to Authorization of Medicinal Products: Making information available to healthcare professionals before a medicinal product is authorized, publishing information on unauthorized medicines and/or off-label information, and using healthcare professionals in market research exercises concerning possible launch materials for medicinal products that are unauthorized.
• Advertisements to Healthcare Professionals: Advertisement requirements and restrictions, rules governing comparative advertisements, rules governing the distribution of scientific papers and/or proceedings of congresses to healthcare professionals, and “teaser” advertisements.
• Gifts and Financial Incentives: Providing medicinal product samples to healthcare professionals, giving gifts or donations, volume-related discounts, refund schemes, and sponsoring medical education.
• Hospitality and Related Payments: Offering hospitality to healthcare professionals and paying healthcare professionals to provide expert services and take part in post-marketing surveillance studies and market research involving promotional materials.
• Advertising to the General Public: Advertising prescription-only and nonprescription medicines, press releases, describing products and research initiatives as background information in corporate brochures and annual reports, and meetings with and funding of patent organizations.
• Transparency and Disclosure: Obligations to disclose details of ongoing and/or completed clinical trials and requirements to make information public.
• The Internet: Regulations, website security, content of independent websites that may be accessed by a link from a company-sponsored site, permitted information on pharmaceutical company websites, and social media.
• Developments in Pharmaceutical Advertising: Significant developments and general practice or enforcement trends.

The ICLG series, published by the Global Legal Group, provides multi-jurisdictional insight into a range of legal areas.

This article appeared in the 2015 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Pharmaceutical Advertising; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London. (www.iclg.co.uk )