Drug Company Gifts: UK MCA "Will Prosecute"

The UK Department of Health says it will prosecute companies,wholesalers and health professionals who offer or accept gifts and inducements for the supply of drugs. Penalties will be up to a L5,000 ($8,160) fine and two years' jail for offering inducements, and up to a L5,000 fine for accepting them.

The Medicines Control Agency has written to all drug companies and professional bodies reminding them that it is a criminal offense to offer gifts, pecuniary advantages or benefits in kind as an inducement to prescribe or supply medicines, and for any person prescribing or supplying human-use medicines to solicit or accept any such inducement. In the past, the Agency has tended to issue warnings or censure companies for such wrongdoing.

The MCA says several promotional schemes have come to its attention recently, many offering "bonus points" relating to orders placed for particular medicines. The points are collected and can be used to obtain gifts such as air miles, holiday discounts, mountain bicycles, and electrical and photographic goods. These offers, says the MCA, cannot be described as "inexpensive and relevant to the practice of medicine or pharmacy," as permitted under regulation 21(1) of the Medicines (Advertising) Regulations 1994, nor can the schemes be described as "trade practices relating to prices, margins or discounts," which would be exempt from prohibition under regulation 21(4).