Regulation of advertisement of traditional medicine

I have been seeing advertisements of traditional and alternative medicine remedies that are claimed to have the efficacy of enlarging male sexual organs and even boosting men’s sexual power amongst others. Is there any law that regulates these immoral advertisements of such traditional and alternative medicine remedies?
PP, Dar

Advertisements of traditional and alternative medicine remedies as well as herbal drugs are regulated by the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act [Cap. 244); the Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices Act [Cap. 219]; the Traditional and Alternative Medicine (Code of Ethics, Conducts and Practice) Regulations, 2008 (GN No. 409 of 2010) as amended by GN No. 425 of 2017 and the Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices (Control of Drug and Herbal Drugs Promotion) Regulations, 2010 (GN No. 160 of 2010).

Section 6(1)(l) of the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act gives the Traditional and Alternative Health Practice Council power to control the dissemination of information and all advertisement pertaining to the traditional and alternative medicine. According to regulation 10 of the Traditional and Alternative Medicine (Code of Ethics, Conduct and Practice) Regulations, 2010, a traditional medicine practitioner who wants to advertise his product must have his advertisement vetted by the Traditional and Alternative Health Practice Council before the advertisement goes public. It is an offence for a herbalist to advertise his product or himself without the advertisement being vetted by the Council.

For the Council to approve the advertisement of a traditional or alternative medicine, the product intended to be advertised must first be registered with the Council. The contents of the advertisement should be consistent with the information approved during the registration of the product. The advertisement should not contain false or misleading information regarding efficacy or value of the traditional medicine. The efficacy or value of the traditional medicine is tested by the Council by seeking clinical trial tests from other institutions like Chief Government Chemist Laboratory Agency or Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices Authority who have scientific laboratories.

If the traditional medicine is a herbal drug, its advertisement should get approval of the Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices Authority. Section 3 of the Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices Act defines a herbal drug (or herbal drugs) as labeled preparation in pharmaceutical dosage form that contains one or more substance of natural origin as an active ingredient that are derived from plants.

It is an offence under the Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices Act and Tanzania Medicine and Medical Devices (Control of Drug and Herbal Drugs Promotion) Regulations, 2010 to advertise a herbal drug without the approval of the TMDA. It is also an offence for herbalists to advertise a herbal drug in a manner that is misleading, deceptive, false, or likely to create erroneous impression regarding the character, value, efficacy of a herbal drug. This offence attracts a fine of not less than 100, 000 TZS or two weeks imprisonment. Hence there is a legal process and trials that must be conducted depending on the product before any approvals are granted.