Healthy Skepticism Library item: 6600

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

From lobbying to activism: overstepping the mark
Health Horizons 1995; (26):23

Abstract:

An international network of health professionals might be becoming just another group of activists and in this progression a certain amount of credibility is lost. The way that the group could constructively criticize industry behaviour is by using the IFPMA Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices. The code has won praise from the World Health Organization and health authorities around the world. In addition to dealing with complaints, the IFPMA code plays an important part in encouraging the implementation and monitoring of imporved standards for marketing practices in order to prevent errors which lead to breaches of the code. The offer by the group of health professionals to do an external audit of companies’ promotional practices is intriguing but impracticable.

Keywords:
*analysis/IFPMA/industry perspective/regulation of promotion/reaction to critics/ Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (IFPMA)/ International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations/REGULATION, CODES, GUIDELINES: INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION