ARO Q&A #6: What qualifies for a minor update?
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Q: Would the following project be appropriate as a minor update ARO 2 submission?
An ad for insertion in a digital brochure for a congress. The ad is 80 – 90% pickup of an ad recently approved by PAAB. We are wondering whether an ad for a congress would be acceptable as part of the ARO initial pilot.
As the ad would be running this year, within the approval window of the initial review, we think this would fit under the ‘minor updates’ category. It would be English only and therefore a fee of $390.
A: As the ad would be running this year, within the approval window of the initial review, we think this would fit under the ‘minor updates’ category. It would be English only and therefore a fee of $390.
While we should not absolutely rule out the possibility that the minor update fees are applicable to your submission without seeing it, it appears much more likely from your description that the minor update fee will not apply.
The fact that the piece is largely comprised of previously approved content is not, in and of itself, sufficient to make it a minor update. A minor update is a revision to an existing APS in which one of the existing presentations is updated with more recent information of the same type. The submitted copydeck (or layout) should have identical copy, layout, and flow as the previously approved version EXCEPT for the single presentation which is being updated. Please see the Guidance on Submission Process and Format Requirements for applicable submission requirements and Appendix A for examples.
But there may be good news here. From your description, the submission sounds as though it may qualify for “APS with little new content” pricing if it has a total of 2 or fewer pages of new content. This pricing structure is applicable to HCP & patient directed APS that are short OR that highly leverage previously approved content. As you can see from the green columns in section “a” of the Fee Schedule, this fee structure enables APS that have 2 or fewer pages of new content to benefit from AROs at the price of the immediately preceding urgency level (i.e., ARO-2 for the price of ARO-4, ARO-4 for the price of ARO-7, and so on). Also note that ARO-2 is available during the pilot for submissions that qualify for “APS with little new content” pricing.
Rest assured that, until the new submission form is available, our admin team will send you a confirmation email outlining the fee breakdown for ARO submissions. The new submission form will show you the price breakdown on the spot.
