‘Make pharma marketing code mandatory’

Tribune news service

Ludhiana, January 20

The Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH) has demanded that the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) be made mandatory. They said it was unfortunate that even after five years, the code remained voluntary. This is despite the fact that several medical organisations had demanded this repeatedly from the government.

The PM has warned pharmaceutical companies not to indulge in unethical practices and stop giving freebies to the doctors with a purpose to procure business. However, that any such deliberations occurred in the meeting with the Prime Minister has been denied by the pharmaceutical companies, said Dr Arun Mitra, Member Core Committee Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare (ADEH).

Companies spend crores of rupees through associations by sponsoring the medical conferences. They spend huge amount on travel, accommodation and other expenditures on the doctors for lavish arrangements of the conferences, he added further.