What does US Federal and Canadian law have to say about marketing of unlicensed healthcare products?
For a nice summary, please see this link.
Internationally, regulations exist to prohibit the advertising or promotion of unlicensed healthcare products. In Canada, Section 9(1) of the Food and Drugs Actstates that, “no person shall label, package, treat, process, sell or advertise any drug in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its composition, merit or safety.” Since the terms and any proposed indication of unlicensed healthcare products have not been established, advertising such products is not permitted.1
Similar provisions are laid out in the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 21, section 312.7(a) and 812.7(a)―the promotion of any investigational drug or medical device (including a new use under investigation for an existing device) is expressly prohibited.2,3