New PhRMA ethics rules will ban reps entertaining doctors, and most gifts

Having come under considerable pressure for its manner of detailing medicines to physicians, and with various pieces of legislation to control its activities in the pipeline (Marketletters passim), the US drug industry has come up with its own constraints. These have been generally welcomed by pharmaceutical majors, a significant number of which went to the extent of issuing press statements of their support.

Specifically, their trade body, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), has issued a revised Marketing Code, which it says is part of an ongoing effort to ensure that pharmaceutical marketing practices comply with the highest ethical standards. Among its changes, the Code:

- prohibits distribution of non-educational items (eg, pens, mugs and other "reminder" objects carrying a company or product logo) to health care providers and their staff. The Code acknowledges that such items, even though of minimal value, "may foster misperceptions" that interactions with health care professionals "are not based on informing them about medical and scientific issues;"