Member companies will pledge to limit “sampling” or giving free medicines to doctors to four packets per doctor, and for no longer than two years after the launch of a new drug.
The practice – widespread in the US, where a recent estimated suggested companies provided $3bn at market priced of samples each year – has been criticised for distorting prescribing away from the most clinically appropriate or affordable treatments.
It has been particularly important in the past in the US where so many patients have to pay for their own treatment, but has also comes under scrutiny in Europe where most medicines are paid for by governments or insurers as a form of marketing.
The new “four by two” sampling ceiling agreed by the trade body would restrict such gifts, leaving just enough to give doctors a chance to see and try new treatments.
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