91 - Can sales representatives distribute educational materials that have been commissioned by their pharma company. The content of the educational material is produced by an independant expert faculty in a given disease area and content is reviewed by an University for balance & scientific integrity and endorsed as being deemed appropriate for Mainpro 2 or Section 2 credits. For reps to be able to distribute the information do the materials need to be reviewed by PAAB even though they are not promotional but rather educational?
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Terminology is important because "advertising" is federally regulated. Therefore, the material is either "advertising" or "not advertising" for regulatory purpose. There is no such category as "educational" within the terminology of the law If the material has been produced independently and is to be distributed in its entirety without additional comment or editing by the company, it is exempt from PAAB review as per code s6.6. However, because of the context of the distribution (eg: drug rep), this may still be considered to be "advertising" if there is focus on the sponsor's product in the content. As such, we suggest ensuring that there is no off label content in violation of the PAAB Code and federal law. The sales reps should be thoroughly trained on SOP to handle this material in a non-promotional manner. We can provide an opinion if they so choose to submit for opinion. Also see the Health Canada document " The Distinction Between Advertising and Other Activities" for the section on distribution of advertising material related to CME/Symposiums see http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/advert-publicit/pol/index-eng.php with reference to the section that speaks about distribution of material after the event.
