Laws clamping down on the misleading promotion of medicine are set to be brought in.

A package of measures comes into effect on July 1, brought in under the Medicines Act 2003.

The measures will make it a criminal offence for an individual in the island to make false or misleading claims about medicinal products.

The Department of Health and Social Care will also be given powers to make regulations governing which products can be advertised and the form and content of those adverts.

Provisions in the package, which will be laid before Tynwald members at next week’s sitting, specify a series of circumstances in which making false or misleading claims about medicinal products could lead to prosecution.

The Tynwald order follows a wide scale review by the DHSC of existing medicines legislation.

Health Minister David Ashford said: ’The department is in the process of carrying out a review to ensure our legislation in this area is relevant and up-to-date.

’It is therefore sensible to bring this Part of the Act into operation at this time, as these measures will strengthen our defence against the false and misleading promotion of medicinal products.’