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news.The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or PhRMA board of directors has announced measures to enhance the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals. The revised code will prevent distribution of non-educational items, such as pens, mugs and other reminder objects adorned with a company or product logo to healthcare providers and their staff.
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The revised code, which builds on improvements already made in the previous 2002 version, is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that pharmaceutical marketing practices comply with the highest ethical standards.
Richard Clark, PhRMA chairman and chairman and CEO of Merck & Co, said: “Informative, ethical and professional relationships between healthcare providers and America’s pharmaceutical research companies are instrumental to effective patient care. We take this responsibility seriously and are constantly reexamining ways we can enhance these essential company-physician interactions and reinforce the integrity of information about our medicines.”
David Norton, chairman of the PhRMA Affordability & Access Committee spearheading the code changes and company group chairman of pharmaceuticals group at Johnson & Johnson, said: “Doctors rely on accurate and appropriate information about new medicines in order to provide the best possible care to their patients. The changes to the code demonstrate that the members of PhRMA are committed to continue enhancing how our industry serves physicians and patients.”
The voluntary PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals, which will take effect in January 2009, reaffirms that interactions between company representatives and healthcare professionals “should be focused on informing the healthcare professionals about products, providing scientific and educational information, and supporting medical research and education.”
The new code also prohibits company sales representatives from providing restaurant meals to healthcare professionals, but allows them to provide occasional meals in healthcare professionals’ offices in conjunction with informational presentations. The code also reaffirms and strengthens previous statements that companies should not provide any entertainment or recreational benefits to healthcare professionals.
The code further says, each company will state its intentions to abide by the code and that company CEOs and compliance officers will certify each year that they have processes in place to comply, a process patterned after the concept of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance mechanisms.