Last month, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced it had updated its guidance on advertising cosmetic injectables. I have written about the subject, and have been interviewed about these policy reforms, here, here, here, and here. But I was again recently interviewed on ABC Drive Canberra about the new changes. That short but lively conversation, embedded below, inspired this post.
In essence, the updates make it abundantly clear that all direct or indirect advertising of prescription-only medicines is prohibited in Australia. Although unwieldy, direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicine is often denoted by the acronym DTCA-PM. In essence, because many dermal filler or nerve-killing cosmetic injectable products, such as Botox, are prescription-only medicines, they cannot be advertised legally in Australia (without specific and exceptional approval).
