PhRMA Revises Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals
July 15, 2008
On July 10, 2008, the Board of Directors of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America (“PhRMA”) adopted revisions to the 2002 PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals (the “2008 Code”). These revisions take formal effect on January 1, 2009, but the changes inaugurated by the 2008 Code will likely be implemented as soon as practicable before then by the signatories and others who elect to follow the Code. At an operational level, the 2008 Code revisions make changes to a number of the existing ground rules for interactions between industry representatives and health care professionals by refining the scope of these interactions, restricting certain relationships that were once permissible, and providing additional clarification to areas that were either vague or not previously addressed. At a conceptual level, the 2008 Code revisions reflect a renewed effort by PhRMA to initiate self-reform on behalf of its members that will stanch the tsunami of legislative, enforcement, litigation, and public policy pressures weighing on the industry’s current marketing paradigm.
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