Cyprus drugmakers to disclose transfers of value to health care professionals

Pharmaceutical companies in Cyprus will disclose transfers of value to health care professionals, as part of a Europe-level initiative to apply a stricter self-regulatory framework in the sector and increase transparency.

Details on the provisions of the revised Code of Conduct on the Promotion of Prescription Only Medicinal Products were announced during a working breakfast with journalists, which was organized by the Cyprus Association of Research and Development Pharmaceutical Companies (KEFEA), a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).

According to the Code’s latest update (May 2014), the companies-members of EFPIA and members of its unions-members will proceed in 2016, for the first time ever, with disclosing details of specific expenses that were incurred on behalf of health care professionals in the year 2015. On behalf of the KEFEA, Kyriakos Mikellis explained that the information made public will concern, among others, the sponsoring of scientific organizations, fees for consultancy speeches and coverage of expenses to attend medical conferences in Cyprus and abroad. The information in question will be published on a public platform, on each company’s web site, and available to the public.