PhRMA: now marketing limits are necessary; but critics unappeased

The decision by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to change its ethics rules (see page 13) has been backed up with messages of support from the major drugmakers, but it has not silenced critics who are already calling for more concessions from the sector. One pharmaceutical industry sympathizer also ridiculed the move by the PhRMA to ban pens and coffee mugs carrying a firm or product name and logo. "Silly and trivial as this sounds," Peter Pitts, the president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest wrote on his drugwonks.com blog, "the more serious issue at play is the caving in by the pharmaceutical industry to misguided political pressure."

Campaigning group the Prescription Project issued a statement which neatly summed up the problem for drug companies. Robert Restuccia, the group's executive director, started by saying: "we are pleased that the Prescription Project's push for more ethical marketing and payments by the pharmaceutical industry to prescribers is bearing fruit." He also "welcomed this belated recognition" by drug firms that their marketing practices "fail to serve the needs of patients and the health care community." The voluntary restriction on gifts "is a step in the right direction."

Now Code's enforcement is criticized