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In January 2007, several pharmaceutical companies in India announced their intention to stop providing incentives (such as, gifts, cash, travel holidays, etc.) to doctors to influence their prescribing behavior. This voluntary code was developed by The Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), which represented major domestic and multinational pharmaceutical companies operating in India. The code also urged these companies to desist from making exaggerated claims regarding the benefits of their products.
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This code was adapted from the guidelines of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA) that regulates international pharmaceutical practices, of which OPPI is a member.
In recent years, pharmaceutical companies throughout the world have been targeted by critics for their marketing practices, particularly, with regard to their transactions with the doctors.
Doctors around the world were known to be pampered by the pharmaceutical industry with expensive gifts and holidays to exotic locations. Critics felt that in doing so, the companies were influencing the doctors to prescribe their products that may not be in the patient's best interests.
Research conducted in India as well as other countries found that, though most of the doctors said that they were not influenced by these incentives, they admitted that their colleagues were influence`ed by such promotions.
Many countries like the US, Australia, and some European countries, have put in place regulations that ban doctors from accepting gifts and other favors from pharmaceutical companies.
The expenses of pharmaceutical companies' on promotional activities were also actively monitored. In the absence of such regulations in India, some critics argued that many doctors were not averse to prescribing high-priced medicines even when low-priced alternatives were available.
They pointed out that even though the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, required doctors to prescribe drugs with generic names, the doctors preferred to prescribe the higher priced branded drugs as such drugs usually had incentives.
It was also reported that some doctors demanded expensive gifts and sponsorships from companies and those who failed to comply were refused the sales call.
This issue brought into focus the aspect of marketing ethics in the pharmaceutical industry and medical profession. OPPI said that these guidelines were in the best interests of the industry, doctors and patients, as it strove to ensure that the industry promoted its products ethically.
OPPI intended to make the code legally binding, but accepted that it would take a long time to be implemented. Analysts welcomed the move by the pharmaceutical companies to stop the incentives, but many wondered whether this self-regulation by the industry could break a practice that had been built over the years.
The companies represented by OPPI accounted for around two-thirds of the Indian pharmaceutical market (estimated to be US$ 6.8 billion in 2005). However, there were still many companies that were not part of the OPPI.
Some analysts also believed that self-regulation would be a difficult proposition as transactions between company representatives and doctors are on a one-to-one basis and thus difficult to regulate.
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