359 - Referring to PAAB Code 6.5.4 - The sponsor may link to corporate global sites only by linking to the global site home page. The sponsor should not link to the global site product pages or sections. Please confirm if we can link to the homepage of our Corporate website for Canada (.ca) or do we have to link to the global site (.com)? Lastly, our source for product monographs is our local corporate website. Please confirm that we can link directly to our product monograph from our promotional websites for quality control.
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Yes. HCP gated websites can link back to the corporate website for Canada (.ca). Yes you can link directly to the PM which happens to be housed on the corporate site from product branded HCP pieces in order to satisfy the PAAB code requirements.
Note that, based on direction from Health Canada, the product branded pre-gate portions of prescription drug websites must not contain a hyperlink or URL to a corporate website containing product monographs. This is true even though, when taken separately, the pre-gate section of the branded site (reminder ad) and the corporate Web site (corporate message) are compliant. Health Canada considers the link between the two to exceed the restriction set out in Section C.01.044 of the Food & Drug Regulations.
Also note that the same principle applies to non-prescription products which are indicated for the treatment of a schedule A disease (per the restrictions set out in Section 3 of the Food and Drugs Act).
