Mark Twain once remarked, “Always try to do the right thing. It will surprise a lot of people. And it will astonish the rest.”

The research-based pharmaceutical industry is unlike any other, our products can provide better quality of lives. Therefore, this industry holds itself to higher ethical standards than other industries as patients rely on our medicines and vaccines.

So, while the business of research-based pharmaceutical companies is the discovery of new medicines and treatments, equally critical is the ethical manner in which we conduct our business. In a business that touches people’s lives, the research-based pharma industry has a great degree of responsibility towards building behaviours that are ethical and transparent. Hence, doing business the right way is imperative as it helps foster trust among critical stakeholders, including healthcare practitioners and patients.

It is against this backdrop that the Revised OPPI (Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India) Code of Pharmaceutical Practices 2019 comes into effect from January 1.

Keeping patients’ interest at the heart of it, the Code ensures that practices in the biopharmaceutical industry are governed by ethical standards. The revised Code is based on the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations or IFPMA’s sixth edition of the code which guides the research-based pharmaceutical industry to adopt a higher ethical standard.

Incidentally, the IFPMA Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices in 1981 was the first of its kind international self-regulation mechanism, coming before the WHO Ethical Criteria on Medicinal Drug Promotion (1988).

It sought to put patients before promotion of products. The code has been revised five times and it is binding on IFPMA members to follow the Code. And OPPI is a member and its members too are bound by the Code.

Two important changes

The 2019 version of the code is marked by two important changes from the existing 2012 Code. First, it introduces a shift from a rules-based to a values-oriented system based on trust, with fairness, honesty, care and respect built into it.

This serves as a North Star that guides behaviour and interaction between OPPI members and the healthcare community, in the best interest of patients.

Each of these elements further symbolises the principles that underpin the Code — so, Care is built into the Innovation in healthcare through newer medicines and Quality in medicines that assure patient safety; Fairness for Integrity and Accountability of actions and practices; Respect for Privacy of information and Education for the ultimate benefit of patients and Honesty for Speaking Up and being Transparent through a balanced conversation among patients, practitioners and other stakeholders.

Second, it establishes the ethical nature of interactions between medical representatives and healthcare professionals by banning gifts and promotional aids for prescription medicines.

Any exceptions based on the custom of gifts to mark significant national, cultural or religious events have also been removed. The Revised Code has been welcomed by patient groups such as the Indian Alliance of Patient Groups and Partnerships for Safe Medicines.

As frontrunners of innovation, research-based pharmaceutical companies have the responsibility to share their scientific knowledge with healthcare practitioners. Today’s fast pace of medical innovation requires a continuous dialogue to ensure that patients have access to the treatments they need, and that healthcare professionals have up-to-date, comprehensive information about the medicines they prescribe.

Patient at centre of action

The revised OPPI Code supports the nature of continued medical education so that new developments on health information can be communicated to doctors, but in a transparent fashion.

Come 2019, the implementation of the OPPI Code will kick off with a renewed commitment from members to keep the patient at the centre of all that we do.

The writer is Director General, OPPI

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