asked the Minister for Health whether his Department have investigated the allegation made at the conference of the Irish Medical Students Association in Galway on 22 January 1984 that the pharmaceuticals industry is promoting drugs through misleading advertisements to the medical profession; and if he has satisfied himself that this is not in fact the case.

No proprietary medicine may be placed on the market in this country without a product authorisation. In its examination of applications for authorisations the National Drugs Advisory Board consider the claims proposed to be made in respect of each medicine. These claims, if accepted by the board, are incorporated in the authorisation granted. Any advertisement or other promotion used in the marketing of this medicine must be consistent with the accepted claims as set out in the authorisation.

Very few instances of misleading advertising have come to the notice of the National Drugs Advisory Board but, where they did, the advertisement in question was discontinued through the board's intervention.