Bad boys, bad boys, what'cha gonna do

Four Big Pharma companies have been ruled to have brought the pharmaceutical industry into disrepute following recent complaints that they broke the UK Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's code of practice.

Serono brought discredit on the industry by paying 30 neurologists to prescribe one of its drugs. The company has been ordered by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, which enforces the code, to ask for its money back.

The doctors were paid £700 each to cover administrative costs associated with an audit of a project to transfer multiple sclerosis patients from low-dose interferon treatment made by Serono, Biogen or Schering Health Care, to a high-dose treatment made only by Serono and to monitor its effect.

A PMCPA inquiry panel ruled that the project was not a bona fide audit and the arrangements amounted to paying doctors to prescribe Serono’s Rebif (interferon beta-1a). A PMCPA appeal board subsequently ordered the company to ask for its money back in case the doctors concerned got the impression that payment in such circumstances was acceptable.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer brought discredit on the industry by paying for a night out for a GP, three nurses and some practice administrative staff. The two companies provided conflicting accounts of whom they took to a restaurant and wine bar, what the purpose of the event was and who paid for what.

A PMCPA appeal board ruled that the discredit was heightened by the involvement of two companies together and that the event could give outsiders the impression that such practices were commonplace.

Sankyo Pharma brought discredit on the industry by failing to comply with an undertaking it gave after being found in breach of the code on a previous occasion. The company had repeated a claim that Olmetec (olmesartan) was unbeaten at reducing hypertension. Its behaviour also reduced confidence in the industry.

Source: Pharmaceutical Journal