Why the UK has an opportunity to lead credibility in wellness
The UK healthcare space has a far more layered set of regulations than some of our US and European counterparts.
In the world of pharmaceuticals, our UK self-regulated system is overseen by The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) and is seen as one of the robust and rigorous models in the world. 1
One of the stand-out features from this self-regulating code is that individuals from the UK working in the pharmaceutical industry still need to abide by the UK Code of Practice wherever they are in the world. 2
If companies operating in the healthcare space interact with people from the UK, they need to ensure their materials events, conferences, payments terms all align to UK codes of conduct.3
With this in mind, we do need to be cognisant of the cultural and regulatory differences that still play a role in how health and wellness information is communicated to the public.
With robust frameworks built into the fabric of the UK health system, the wellness industry has an opportunity to take this challenge by the horns and be the market that pioneers credible marketing and communications in wellness.
- Department for International Trade. Healthcare and life sciences from the UK. 2017 Available at: https://trade.great.gov.uk/industries/health Last accessed: September 2017 ↩
- The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry 2016. Available at: http://www.abpi.org.uk/our-work/library/guidelines/Pages/170216.aspx Last accessed: September 2017 ↩
-
The worldwide web has created a truly global landscape, where information is freely shared without any borders. While this has an enormous amount of positives – there can be some issues raised when this is applied to health and wellness information.
Some products, ingredients procedures or treatments accessible in the US, may be banned or unavailable to those living in the UK due to a different regulatory structure. In the US, prescription-only medicines are advertised directly to the public – in the UK this is prohibited. [3. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. Advertise your medicines. 2017 Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/advertise-your-medicines Last accessed: September 2017 ↩
