Indian Govt releases guidelines on Pharmaceutical Marketing

Indian government published the latest guidelines to prevent unethical pharmaceutical industry practices that can influence healthcare professionals. Foreign tours in the name of medical education workshops and grants for research are not allowed now. This will help to gain transparency in the medical field.
This new guideline named “Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP-2024)” is sent to all pharmaceutical associations on Tuesday. This guideline prohibits companies to conduct medical education workshops in foreign countries. Companies must publish the details of these types of conferences on their website including the expense of the same. The firms can be individually and randomly audited for this reason.

The companies must share the process for selection of participants and speakers of the workshop. All involved individuals must comply with the income tax provisions. Companies are allowed to support the research studies but the organizations authorized by the Indian Council for Medical Research or the Drug Controller General of India.

New guidelines are the resections from the last version in use since 2015. Pharmaceutical companies are still giving various types of gifts to healthcare professionals and their families. These gifts are given to increase their sales which forces the doctors to prescribe their highly-priced medicines. These unethical practices are now prohibited as per these guidelines.

The guidelines say, “All associations are requested to constitute an Ethics Committee for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (ECPMP), set up a dedicated UCPMP portal on their website, and take further necessary steps towards implementation of this Code.”

Informational material and free samples are allowed within the specified limits and these samples should not influence the medical practitioner’s behavior for prescription of medicines. It is to avoid foreign locations for medical education and disclose funding sources.

This guideline also provides information on promotional materials used to promote medicinal products. The promotional material should not contain a photograph of any healthcare professional. Promotional material should not be misleading or confusing.

If any company fails to follow the guidelines Ethics Committee for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (ECPMP) can take action against the company. These actions include exclusion from the association, issuance of corrective action on promotional material, recovery of funds obtained, cases may be referred to the government authorities for further action if required.

These guidelines on marketing pharmaceutical products will help to improve the ethical activities in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. More strict rules are required to be implemented to stop unethical practices in the healthcare field. If you have any suggestions for the same, please don’t hesitate to list those in the comment section below.

These guidelines are very interesting and you can read the full guidelines here.