UK Industry/NHS: "Ban Sleaze And Work Together"

Pharmaceutical companies' very substantial investments in UK National Health Service clinicians and organizations are often seen simply as cynical marketing techniques, and the recipients do, often unconsciously, favor donors' products, Brian Edwards, regional director of the West Midlands NHS Executive, has said. But "sleaze only develops in private," and if companies publicly declared all their NHS investments, the recipients would have to show that there had been no improper bias in their spending or prescribing.

Prof Edwards told the Financial Times World Pharmaceuticals Conference in London last week that the legitimate use of powerful marketing tools by the industry undoubtedly leads to inappropriate prescribing and substantial waste. "Clean up your marketing," he advised companies, "make your investments visible, and stick to selling to the product license."

Both the NHS and the industry are going through radical changes, he said. For the NHS, the internal market is beginning to work, and one aspect of this is that differential pricing policies are becoming visible, with hospital discounts as high as 90% where volume prescribing is in primary care at the full rate. The next stage is likely to be local filters to govern the introduction of complex, usually expensive drugs into primary care, and it will be for both the NHS and industry to ensure that they do not delay the introduction of drugs that produce clearly-defined and economic benefits. Indeed, for some drugs, introduction should be accelerated.