Marketing of off-label use
Okay kiddo, so you know how sometimes when you are sick, the doctor gives you medicine to take to help you feel better? Well, those medicines are made by companies called pharmaceutical companies, and they want to sell as much medicine as they can so they can make lots of money.
But sometimes, the medicine that the doctor gives you has only been approved by the government for certain things it can help with, like maybe it was approved to help with headaches, but the doctor is giving it to you for something else, like maybe they think it might help with your tummy ache even though the medicine wasn't approved for that.
When the pharmaceutical company tells doctors that their medicine might be good for things that it wasn't approved for, that's called marketing of off-label use. And sometimes, the medicine might actually help with the thing that it wasn't approved for, but sometimes it might not work or it might even be dangerous.
So, the government has rules about how pharmaceutical companies can market their medicine for off-label use, to make sure they are being honest and not just trying to sell more medicine.
But sometimes, the medicine that the doctor gives you has only been approved by the government for certain things it can help with, like maybe it was approved to help with headaches, but the doctor is giving it to you for something else, like maybe they think it might help with your tummy ache even though the medicine wasn't approved for that.
When the pharmaceutical company tells doctors that their medicine might be good for things that it wasn't approved for, that's called marketing of off-label use. And sometimes, the medicine might actually help with the thing that it wasn't approved for, but sometimes it might not work or it might even be dangerous.
So, the government has rules about how pharmaceutical companies can market their medicine for off-label use, to make sure they are being honest and not just trying to sell more medicine.