The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has issued a direction notice to Phenix Health Pty Ltd (Phenix) to cease promoting the use and supply of nicotine vaping products to Australian consumers.
The TGA was of the view that when taken in the context of the whole advertisement, the website URL, trading name and website content promoted the use and supply of nicotine vaping products.
This is because it is alleged that Phenix:
- used references to the therapeutic good in the trade name and website URL
- advertised the benefits of using liquid nicotine vaping over other methods for smoking cessation
- omitted important, balanced information on the use of nicotine vaping products.
Phenix was directed to cease using the following words together in the website URL and in the company trading name:
- ‘vape’ or any variation such as ‘vaping’
- ‘prescription’, ‘script’, ‘medical’, ‘pharmacy’, ‘pharmacist’, or any variation of those words.
Nicotine vaping products are prescription only medicines and cannot be directly advertised to Australian consumers unless the advertisement meets the conditions of the Therapeutic Goods (Restricted and Prohibited Representations – Nicotine) Permission (No. 2) 2021 for retail pharmacies and pharmacy marketing groups only.
If you suspect non-compliance in relation to therapeutic goods, you can report illegal or questionable practices online to the TGA. The TGA encourages the reporting of suspected non-compliant advertising.
