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ETHICAL MARKETING OF DRUGS

ETHICAL MARKETING OF DRUGS

Why in News?

Recently, The Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) has accused the makers of the Dolo-650 tablet of spending Rs 1,000 crore to distribute freebies to doctors for prescribing the medicine.

• Drug manufacturing companies have been observed practicing ‘Gift-giving’: offering freebies ranging from free dinners and drug samples to promotional merchandise to doctors for their product marketing.
• In order to promote their products, pharma companies allegedly arrange accommodation in five-star hotels, local sight-seeing, etc. in conferences conducted by doctors.
• This is a well-oiled racket that sees pharmaceutical (pharma) companies ‘gifting’ doctors to push their respective drugs under the guise of marketing.
• Drug firms would offer branded souvenirs like pen stands, calendars, diaries or sanitizers to doctors.
• The idea is to ensure top-of-the-mind recall of their brands.
• The Indian market is price-controlled. Therefore, the differentiator here is the brands and this is common practice.
• However, these practices do not ensure doctors will prescribe their drugs. It is simply a marketing strategy.
• Around 95% of the items being gifted have a value less than Rs 500.
• It does not constitute a bribe. It is done to make the doctor remember a brand among the hundred others with a similar price point.

Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices

• This is a set of guidelines published by the Central Government in December 2014 to the pharmaceutical industry for the promotion and marketing of drugs and medical devices.
• However, these guidelines are voluntary code and not legally binding on companies.
• This code governs the conduct of pharmaceutical companies in their marketing practices, duly covering the various aspects such as medical representatives, textual and audio-visual promotional materials, samples, gifts, etc.
• The code establishes relationships with healthcare professionals, wherein the provisions related to travel facilities, hospitality and cash or monetary grants to physicians or their families have been elaborated.

If found guilty of unethically promoting drug brands to doctors, companies should face the same penal action as is mentioned in the Indian Penal Code for bribery and other similar unethical practices. The government should make it mandatory for periodic disclosures of payments made by companies to doctors and professional bodies, directly or indirectly via other parties, to be accessible to the public. The disclosures should include the amount, purpose of expenditure, and the party paid. The UCPMP should be legally binding on the companies. Currently, the codes neither have the power nor the incentive to punish companies It falls upon pharma associations to enforce the voluntary code.