AstraZeneca to stop paying for international conference trips
pharmafile | June 2, 2011 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, congresses, ethics
AstraZeneca will no longer pay for doctors to attend international conferences.
The move is the latest development in the industry’s shift away from providing all-expenses-paid trips for doctors to international medical congresses. Once widely accepted, the practice is now much rarer, tainted by accusations of ‘schmoozing’ and inappropriate relationships with doctors.
Speaking at a recent conference in Istanbul, AZ’s chief executive David Brennan said his company would stop paying for international trips, but would still pay doctors to speak at local conferences.
Brennan said the company’s main focus in all of its educational and promotional activities with healthcare professionals is to provide quality educational programmes.
“We believe that by making these very clear commitments about how we promote our products, we can gain an advantage from doing the right thing,” he added.
He said: “I know from my own experience as a sales representative, you will encounter people who will ask for gifts, or other inducements and will threaten to take their business elsewhere, if you don’t acquiesce.
“But we have made it clear that our sales force have to say no,” he said, adding that his sales force must now do the right thing, “not the easy thing”.
Brennan is the current president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), which is looking to improve pharma’s reputation around the world.
Brennan pointed to recent research suggesting pharma is still not trusted by some stakeholders. Pharma’s payments to healthcare professionals have come under the spotlight in recent years, with a series of recent investigations under Americas’ Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) increasing scrutiny greatly.
AstraZeneca is itself currently under investigation in the US in connection with the FCPA. It says it is “co-operating with these inquiries”.
In relation to this investigation AZ said it is looking into some sales practices and interactions with healthcare providers outside the US, including ‘inappropriate conduct’ in certain countries, specifically mentioning China.
Ben Adams
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