In this article, which is quite technical but nevertheless an important read, Professor Roy Jobson of Rhodes University's Faculty of Pharmacy's Pharmacology Division explains that we should consider using the current advertising code for pet food as a guide to improving the code for complementary medicines.

When evaluating survey data the devil is always in the detail. In a recent case the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) allowed Solal Technologies to keep crucial survey details secret. This decision deprived the complainant, Marcus Low, from an opportunity to interrogate spurious survey findings.

The Final Appeals Committee of the Advertising Standards Authority has overturned a ruling that an advertisement by Solal was in breach of Appendix F. The advert in question implied that a Solal product containing Omega-3 reduced the risk of heart disease. The original ASA ruling, following a complaint from Kevin Charleston, found that the advert breached Appendix F. This appendix limits what advertisers can say about a range of medical conditions, including heart disease. In ...

Every now and again someone calls the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) office hoping to enlist our help in promoting some new miracle HIV treatment. Obviously we’re the wrong people to call. Our standard response is to ask for the published evidence. Sometimes we’ll be e-mailed some trial findings that invariably fall short of substantiating their claims. Most of the time though, all we get is testimonials.