Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13741

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

Dyer O.
Drug companies must be open about using doctors as consultants, new code of practice demands.
BMJ 2008 May 17; 336:(7653):1095
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/336/7653/1095-c

Abstract:

The way that drug companies hire and reward doctors for consultancy work is to be regulated in the United Kingdom for the first time under new rules laid down by the British drug industry’s trade association.

The revised code of practice from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry bars drug companies from offering “token consultancy arrangements” that are used “to justify compensating health professionals.”

Consultancy work must be covered by a written contract that lays out the services involved, it says, and remuneration should reflect fair market value. Companies should not engage more consultants than they need, says the new code.

Industry members are also “strongly encouraged” to include clauses in consultancy contracts requiring consultants to declare links to the company whenever they publicly discuss issues concerning it. The code encourages drug companies to renegotiate existing contracts to include such a disclosure clause.

The new rules also require for . . .

Keywords:
Publication Types: News MeSH Terms: Codes of Ethics* Consultants Disclosure/ethics* Drug Industry/ethics* Medical Staff, Hospital/ethics*