Voluntary Codes and Guidelines

The advertising of nonprescription, over-the-counter medicines helps acquaint the public with these products and must be truthful, not misleading, and must meet high standards reflecting the nature of the product advertised.

The CHPA Analysis of Reportability of Changes to New Drug Application (NDA) Over-the-Counter (OTC) Product Labeling Table was developed to assess the reportability of changes to OTC products subject to new drug applications.

This document was developed by members of the CHPA Dietary Supplements Committee Probiotics Labeling Group to provide voluntary guidelines for use by manufacturers of dietary supplement products containing probiotic ingredients.

To help prevent accidental medication ingestions and overdoses in children, this document suggests ways to improve the consistency and standard format of volumetric measures within the dosing directions on the outer packaging and immediate container label.

The following information on botanical ingredients should be included in either a bulk botanical raw material specification sheet (for business-to-business transactions) or finished product labeling (when selling directly to consumers).

The objective of this guideline is to define the minimum stability data package to support the commercial distribution of OTC monograph drug products in the United States per climatic zone.

Due to the wide variety of changes that may be encountered after an OTC monograph drug is marketed, it is impossible to address stability requirements for all changes in this guideline. However, guidance from the examples provided here can be used in the decision-making process.

The purpose of these guidelines is to catalog and strengthen standards of care that have evolved in the practice of providing unsolicited free samples of OTC medicines to consumers to promote their products.

Under a voluntary program which began in November 2007, manufacturers of OTC oral pediatric cough and cold medicines should take the following steps in the labeling, packaging, and promotion of these medicines.

As a direct result of the PROTECT initiative, CHPA developed a voluntary guideline for industry suggesting ways to standardize volumetric measures in dosing directions and dosing devices for oral pediatric liquid drug products.