TGA $10 million ad fine

THE Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has hailed a Federal Court order yesterday requiring Peptide Clinics Australia to pay $10 million in penalties for breaches of medicine advertising rules.

The substantial fine “reflects the very real dangers to public health and safety and the egregious conduct of Peptide Clinics,” the TGA said, particularly highlighting the “charade” of medical practitioners’ involvement with the business which gave consumers the false impression those practitioners were acting in their best interests.

The Court accepted submissions from the Health Department that Peptide Clinics “deliberately and recklessly pursued its own financial self-interest, at the expense of its legal obligations and the interests of public health”.

The ruling found that Peptide Clinics had breached the Act and the Advertising Codes every single day that its advertisements appeared on social media channels and on the company’s website.

The website promoted prescription-only products for a range of “inappropriate and misleading” indications such as anxiety, bodybuilding, tanning, weight loss, hair loss, insomnia relief and premature ejaculation.

“The TGA advises that interfaces that allow consumers to review and self-select prescriptiononly medicines for subsequent prescribing and supply, and websites that promote general classes of prescription-only medicines, will generally be considered in contravention of the Act,” a TGA update advised.