As a partner in healthcare, the medicines industry is acutely aware of stakeholders' high expectations of the way we conduct our business, from the discovery of new medicines through to their use in the NHS.
Through the ABPI Trust Imperative, the UK industry has been focusing on how we meet these expectations.
Our starting point has been to listen to and understand the views of patients, clinicians, NHS staff and other stakeholders. Working with the Reputation Institute, we have commissioned a series of in-depth interviews and analysis across a broad range of those with an interest in healthcare. The research focused on the issues that stakeholders told us were most important to them in their own interactions with industry.
First conducted in 2010, the research will be run on an annual basis to ensure we stay in touch with the evolving views of the public, patients and the medical community.
Evolving the way we work
ABPI members’ activities in the UK are governed by the ABPI Code of Practice. As an industry we regularly update the Code to ensure that we meet expectations and ensure best practice. In November 2010, members voted to make two significant changes to the Code of Practice, following extensive consultation with stakeholder organisations representing the NHS, patient groups, health professionals and industry.
From 1st January 2011 under the new Code:
The industry will no longer provide branded promotional aids, such as pens, pads and mugs to healthcare professionals. This will take effect from 1st May 2011. Some companies have already made this change and others may do so ahead of this date.
From 2012, companies will be required to collect and declare aggregate total amounts paid to healthcare professionals for services, including: speaker fees, sponsorship for attendance at meetings, advisory boards and consultancy, as well as declaring the number of health professionals a company works with. These declarations will be made on an annual basis with the first declaration of payments to occur in 2013 for payments made in 2012. The Code does not require individual health professionals to be named.
The changes aim to support greater openness and transparency in the relationship between the industry and healthcare professionals, something that our stakeholders in the medical profession, wider healthcare and across industry have told us that they want. A joint statement from ABPI and 15 leading healthcare organisations supporting the changes to the Code can be downloaded below:
Through the ABPI Trust Imperative we will continue to listen to the views expressed by our stakeholders and review how we work with our partners.
Working on issues globally
As part of a global industry, we and our member companies work on a range of issues both in the UK and internationally through our work with the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry Associations and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations.
Further information
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