By Izunna Okafor, Awka
Anambra State Government has placed ban on all kinds of unauthorized advertisement of medicines by media houses in the state.
The State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Paul Nwosu announced the ban placement in a press statement issued on Thursday, in which he warned that no media house in the State should publicize any advertisement if it was not submitted by government.
According to him, every advertisement of medicines henceforth in the State must be cleared, approved and submitted by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Medicals and Pharmaceuticals.
Tagged ‘Advertisements of Herbal and Traditional Medicine’, the statement read: “All Radio and Television stations, together with the Print Media, in Anambra State are hereby advised to neither receive nor broadcast/publish any adverts, jingles, announcements or public information on Indigenous and Herbal Medical Practice and Medicine without written clearance from the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Medicals and Pharmaceuticals.
“It is only the Office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Medicals and Pharmaceuticals that can directly submit all approved jingles, public announcements, commercials, adverts, etc, to the respective media organisations in line with NAFDAC and Ministry of Health guidelines after ethical vetting and approvals.
“Herbal and Indigenous Medicine Practitioners are forbidden from directly taking any information pertaining to their medicines/products to any media house in the state for public consumption.”