Dicle Doğan and Fatma Sevde Tan, Gun & Partners
On 11 June 2020, the Turkish Medicines and Medical Devices Agency published new guidelines (Turkish language) on scientific meetings and educational activities regarding medical devices.
The guidelines, which were updated by an amendment made on 27 April 2020, state that in terms of scientific web-based meetings, only meetings that last more than one day should be notified. This is further to the existing rules, which do not require medical device companies to notify the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of web-based meetings where technical hardware support (which includes all kinds of devices, apparatus, software and so on) is not provided or that do not have a corresponding transfer of value.
Healthcare professionals can be sponsored by companies only four times per year to attend scientific events (such as congresses and symposiums). The guidelines state that any notified web-based meetings shall be considered as sponsored meetings and be counted as one of those four sponsorships. However, web-based educational meetings (such as product promotional meetings) are not considered to be scientific events.
The guidelines entered into force upon publication.
First published by Practical Law in Jul 01, 2020.