Hat tip to Observer in the FT, who writes:
"You might have thought the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, the drug industry's global trade body, would have wanted to make a song and dance about its tougher new code of ethical conduct.
The guidelines - when they come into force next January - should help fight the perception that the drug industry manipulates doctors by courting them with business-class travel to pseudo conferences in exotic locations with their spouses. Typically, more effort goes into entertainment than scientific medical discussions.
Yet the federation took a softly-softly approach to the launch, with no one in its Geneva office to take calls in response to a press release it issued on the new code.
Perhaps because pharma bosses didn't want to trumpet a document that implied things had not always been, ahem, quite above board in the past.
It turns out that its key staff were themselves off attending conferences, including one in Madrid for the newly created compliance officers in the drug companies stipulated by the code.
Observer hopes they travelled modestly, and managed to discuss a few ethical issues before the tapas and castanets arrived."
LOL!
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