DRUG AND MAGIC REMIDES ACT 1954, RULES, PHOHIBITIONS

DRUG AND MAGIC REMIDES ACT 1954, RULES, PROHIBITIONS, CASE STUDY

1. Presented by : Miss Harshita singhai DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES DR. HARISINGH GOUR VISHWAVIDYALAYA SAGAR ( M.P. ) ( A CENTRAL UNIVERSITY ) Drugs and Magic Remedies Act, 1954 1

2. Contents INTRODUCTION DEFINITIONS EXEMPTIONS CASE STUDY PROHIBITIONS REFERENCES 2

3. Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 (‘ DMRA ’) DRMA  was enacted in the year 1954 with the object to control/prohibit the advertisement of drugs and remedies with claim to possess magic qualities in certain cases. ‘Drug’, ‘Magic Remedies’, and ‘Advertisement’ are key terms defined under DMRA . 3

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6. Magic Remedy ‘Magic Remedy’ is defined to include talisman, mantra, kavacha , and any other charm which is alleged to possess miraculous powers of diagnosing, curing, prevention, etc. of certain diseases. 6

7. Drug ‘Drug’ is defined to include any medicine, substance or device, article affecting organic structure of humans or animals, or any component of it. 7

8. Advertisement ‘ Advertisement’ under the DMRA can be in any form, such as a notice, circular, wrapper,label , announcement (oral, smoke or light) or any other document. 8

9.  As per the new definition advertisement of drugs for fairness, improvement of height, increase in brain capacity, improvement of vision, improvement of strength of natural teeth, improvement in size and shape of sexual organs, and in sexual performance, etc. would be prohibited. Accordingly, advertising fairness creams, health drinks for increasing height or vision or memory, would come under the scanner. 9

10. Exemption In exercise of this power, the Central Government in the year 1961 issued a notification giving exemption to advertisement of government-approved contraceptives. Thus, condoms being male contraceptives, would be covered under this notification, if government approved . Subsequently, in 1992, the Central Government vide notification in public interest also exempted advertisement of chemical contraceptives of a certain composition for oral use . However , in 2017, this exemption w.r.t . condom advertisements were regulated, to the extent, it related to advertisement on television channels, by a notification of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting.  10

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12. In February this year, the health ministry had released the draft of  Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 . This draft bill added 24 new diseases and disorders to the schedule, which earlier had 54 diseases. These include drugs or treatment for enhancing sexual performance, fairness of skin, premature ageing, and improvement in height of kids and adults.  The proposed amendments also increased the penalty for first conviction to 2 years and fine up to Rs 10 lakh . A second conviction would lead to an imprisonment of up to 5 years and fine up to Rs 50 lakh .  12

13. In February 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, probably respecting the collective consciousness and will of the nation,  put forth a proposal before the Parliament (‘Bill’) to amend the old Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act, 1954 (‘ DMRA ’). The main intent behind this Bill seems to be to curb promotion or advertisement of the so-called ‘quintessential image of a human’.  Even before the enactment of the proposed Bill, some of the FMCG giants in India seemed to have embraced the proposed change – one of the leading FMCGs has renamed ‘Fair & Lovely’ products as ‘Glow & Lovely. 13

14. All about Magic Remedies Act, law that landed Patanjali in trouble over Covid ‘cure’ drug The ministry can ask the drug manufacturer, etc. to furnish information “regarding the composition of the drug or the ingredients thereof or any other information in regard to that drug as he deems necessary for holding the scrutiny of the advertisement and where any such order is made”.  The AYUSH ministry has done exactly this. It has  asked   Patanjali to provide details of the “name and composition of the medicines being claimed for Covid treatment; site(s)/hospital(s), where the research study was conducted for Covid -19; protocol, sample size, Institutional Ethics Committee clearance, CTRI registration  and results data of the study ( ies )”. 14

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16. Prohibition There is a general prohibition under the DMRA for misleading and false advertisements. Additionally, advertisements of drugs or magic remedies, which suggest procurement of miscarriage, prevention of conception, maintenance or improvement of sexual pleasure, correction of menstrual disorder or diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease/disorder mentioned in the Schedule of DMRA or the Rules made thereunder , are prohibited under the Act. 16

17. Prohibition of advertisement of certain drugs for treatment of certain diseases and disorders. No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement lead to the use of that drug for-- (a) the procurement of miscarriage in women or prevention of conception in women; or (b) the maintenance or improvement of the capacity of human beings for sexual pleasure; or (c) the correction of menstrual disorder in women; or (d) the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease, disorder or condition specified in the Schedule, under this Act. 17

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20.   Prohibition of misleading advertisements relating to drugs No person shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement relating to a drug if the advertisement contains any matters which-- (a) directly or indirectly gives a false impression regarding the true character of the drug; or (b) makes a false claim for the drug; or (c) is otherwise false or misleading in any material particular. 20

21. Prohibition of advertisement of magic remedies for treatment of certain diseases and disorders. No person carrying on or purporting to carry on the profession of administering magic remedies shall take any part in the publication of any advertisement referring to any magic remedy which directly or indirectly claims to be efficacious for any of the purposes specified in section 3 21

22. Prohibition of import into, and export from, India of certain advertisements No person shall import into, or export from, the territories to which this Act extends any documents containing an advertisement of the nature referred to in section 3 or in section 4 or section 5, and any document containing any such advertisements shall be deemed to be goods of which the import or export has been prohibited under section 19 of the Sea Customs Act, 1878 (8 of 1878), and all the provisions of that Act shall have effect accordingly, except that section 183 thereof shall have effect as if for the word 'shall' therein the word 'may' were substituted 22

23. Penalty Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of this Act  1 [or the rules made thereunder ] shall, on conviction, be punishable-- (a) in the case of the first conviction, with imprisonment which may extend to six months, or with fine, or with both; (b) in the case of a subsequent conviction, with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both. The proposed amendments also increased the penalty for first conviction to 2 years and fine up to Rs 10 lakh . A second conviction would lead to an imprisonment of up to 5 years and fine up to Rs 50 lakh .  23

24. Who has been punished in the past? In June last year, the Travancore Cochin Medical Council had  suspended  for a month the registration of an Ayurvedic doctor after finding him guilty of violating the Act. This was after the council received complaints about the doctor advertising the cure for various ailments through his treatment of “ thulli marannu ” (oral drops). In 2016, the Maharashtra Medical Council of India had  suspended  for 3 months registrations of a Colaba -based doctor couple running an IVF clinic following complaints that they made promises of guaranteed pregnancy on their website and even offered refund if the treatment failed . 24

25. Powers of entry, search, etc. ( 1) Any Gazetted Officer authorised by the State Government may, within the local limits of the area for which he is so authorised ,-- (a) enter and search at all reasonable times, with such assistants, if any, as he considers necessary, any place in which he has reason to believe that an offence under this Act has been or is being committed; (b) seize any advertisement which he has reason to believe contravenes any of the provisions of this Act: (c) examine any record, register, document or any other material object found in any place  and seize if punishable under this Act. (2) The provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898), shall, so far as may be, apply to any search or seizure under this Act as they apply to search or seizure made under the authority of a warrant issued under section 98 or the said Code. (3) Where any person seizes anything under clause  (b)  or clause  (c)  of sub-section  (1) , he shall, as soon as may be, inform a Magistrate and take his orders as to the custody thereof. . 25

26.   Offences by companies 1) If a company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed , was in charge of, and was responsible to, the company for the conduct of the business of the company as well as the company shall be deemed to be guilty of the contravention and shall be liable to be proceeded against, and punished accordingly. 2)Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to any punishment provided in this act if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge or that he exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence. Explanation .--For the purposes of this section,-- (a) 'company' means any body corporate and includes a firm or other association of individuals; and (b) 'director' in relation to a firm means a partner in the firm 26

27. REFERENCES JAIN N.K. “ A TEXTBOOK OF FORENSIC PHARMACY ” , 2015, ED: 8, BY VALLABH PRAKASHAN,PG.NO . 271-281. https:// www.slideshare.net / madhu56799 /drug-and-magic-remedies-act-1954 https:// www.medindia.net / indian_health_act /the-drugs-and-magic-remedies-act- 1955.htm https://drugscontrol.py.gov.in/drugsmagicact.html 27

28. THANK YOU 28