Dissemination of Information Why is Labeling so Important? How is Drug Labeling Different from Other...

Preview:

Citation preview

Dissemination of Information

Why is Labeling so Important? How is Drug Labeling Different from

Other Consumer Product Labeling? How is Rx Labeling Different from

OTC Labeling? Why is Drug Advertising Different

from Other Consumer Product Advertising?

Legal Regulation of Speech

Personal and political speech

Ideas can be stupid, wrong, and dangerous

Deadly diets and self-help books Violent movies

Legal Remedies

No prior restraint Usually cannot prevent publication Can sue afterwards if the speech is

actionable

Defamation

Exceptions for public figures Opinions are protected Truth is a defense

Intentional interference with a business relationship

Like defamation but of a business Can be easier to prove than

defamation because truth is not a defense

Product disparagement laws are constitutionally suspect Oparh's comments about burgers Hollywood personalities comments about

pesticides in apples

Invasion of Privacy

Publishing sensitive personal information

Truth is not a defense Key is usually that you violate the

law in getting it, and that is an important part of the action

Copyright

You cannot use other's words Some rights of fair use

Trade secrets

Can be enjoined (prior restraint) Treated as taking another's

property, not as speech Can be difficult to undo publication

on the Internet

National security

Cannot tell government secrets What if you develop a code that

the government wants suppressed?

Commercial speech

Speech in conjunction with selling products and services

Traditionally Not Subject to 1st Amendment Protections

New Jurisprudence Recognized Commercial Speech Protections in the 1970s

Regulation of Commercial Speech

Much less protection More like action than speech Extensively regulated for Deceptive Key Question

Can the Government Regulate or Ban Truthful Commercial Speech?

Why Would the Government Want to?

Drug names Chemical name

a long, descriptive name that allows a chemist to draw the structure of the molecule7-chloro-1,3-dihydro- 1-methyl-5-phenyl-2H-1,4-benzodiazepin-2-one

Established name a generic name for the chemical which anyone may use in

lieu of the chemical name, i.e., a name that is not a trademarkdiazepam

Trade name the trademarked name of that a specific manufacturer

uses to sell a drug, which can only be used by the manufacturer or with its permission. For example, the patent has long expired on Valium and it is sold as a generic, but only the owner of the trade name can call it Valium.

Recommended