Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13628

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: news

Silverman E.
UK Drugmakers Unveil A New Code Of Conduct
Pharmalot 2008 May 9
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/05/uk-drugmakers-unveil-a-new-code-of-conduct/

Full text:

Drugmakers must do more to encourage side-effect reporting under a new industry code of practice published by the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry. As of November, new promotional info must explicitly and “prominently” state that “adverse events should be reported” and provide details of the website to contact with concerns.

What else? Drugmakers will have to make publicly available a short description of financial and significant indirect support of patient groups; and sponsorship declarations must accurately reflect the nature of the company’s involvement.

Pharma must have a contract for health professionals and others employed as consultants, and are “strongly encouraged” to require consultants to declare this as an interest. And drugmakers are “encouraged” to publicly disclose available info about donations and grants to institutions supporting healthcare and research.

The code also requires drugmakers, for the first time, to make public details of all clinical trials they conduct for experimental meds. And all “non-interventional” studies that take place after regulatory approval – which can be a pretext for marketing – should be conducted only for genuine scientific reasons. These must be subject to ethical approval.

In addition, samples should be limited in number and never used to promote usage, and further clamps down on the use of “extravagant” venues or hospitality by companies for health practitioners. Even quizzes used for training should not result in the distribution of prizes, according to the code. You can read the complete code right here (http://www.pmcpa.org.uk/).