Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8785

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Publication type: Journal Article

Burton B.
Roche fined over "extravagant" meals for doctors.
BMJ 2007 Feb 24; 334:(7590):384
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7590/384

Abstract:

Roche has been fined $A75 000 (£30 200; 44 900; $59 100) for breaching provisions of the Australian drug industry’s voluntary marketing code of conduct specifying that hospitality should be “simple and modest.”

In July last year the BMJ (2006;333:169) and the Australian newspaper reported that Roche Products spent more than $A71 000 on three lavish conference dinners for about 330 doctors. Since then the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian government drug regulator, lodged a complaint alleging that Roche may have breached six provisions of the code. Roche is a subsidiary of the Swiss based F Hoffmann-La Roche Group. The meals, associated with a two day long haematology and oncology symposium and another workshop in mid-2005, were provided at leading Sydney restaurants.

Roche’s drug rituximab (MabThera), which is used to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is the company’s biggest earner and accounted for more than a 10th of the company’s 42bn Swiss . . .

Keywords:
Publication Types: News MeSH Terms: Australia Codes of Ethics Drug Industry/economics* Drug Industry/legislation & jurisprudence Interprofessional Relations/ethics* Marketing/economics