MAM
Parliamentary committee wants action against ads of prescription drugs
NEW DELHI: A Parliamentary Committee has recommended appropriate action against companies that advertise prescription drugs in news and the lay press.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, in its report on the Functioning of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, has recommended that a provision should also be incorporated in the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to ban such practices and penalise offenders. The Committee would like to be informed of the action taken to implement these recommendations.
The Committee said that this can lead to self-medication by the patients which can turn out to be hazardous. Recent cases of lay press advertisements are those of Anti-depressant Deanxit (Lundbeck); Anti-epileptic agents Desval ER (Ranbaxy), Lametec DT (Cipla), CToin (USV); and Cholesterol lowering Coltro (USV)..
However, the Committee said advertisements should be issued whenever any drug is found to be sub-standard and referred to some states which had set up websites to impart this information.
Meanwhile, it suggested that the Ministry should use the technology used by the Registrar of Newspapers to prevent drugs with similar brand names.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
