Stiefel and Ferring named in advertisements for breaches of the ABPI Code of Practice
Stiefel Laboratories Ltd and Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ltd have breached The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry. To highlight these breaches, both are the subjects of advertisements in the medical, pharmaceutical and nursing press.
Stiefel was ruled in breach of the Code for presenting the output of a company run meeting as an independent supplement to a medical journal. Stiefel was ruled in breach of the following clause of the Code.
• Clause 2 - Bringing discredit upon and reducing confidence in the pharmaceutical industry.
Ferring breached the Code through the actions of its public relations agency which sent unapproved copy about a prescription only medicine to a patient organisation for publication on its website. Ferring was ruled in breach of the following clauses of the Code.
• Clause 2 - Bringing discredit upon and reducing confidence in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Clause 9.1 - Failing to maintain high standards.
• Clause 14.3 - Failing to certify information provided to a patient organisation.
• Clause 22.2 - Encouraging members of the public to ask their health professional to prescribe a specific prescription only medicine.
• Clause 23.6 - Influencing the text of patient organisation material in a manner favourable to a company’s commercial interests.
Under provisions in its Constitution and Procedure, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA) advertises brief details of all cases where companies are ruled in breach of Clause 2 of the Code, are required to issue a corrective statement or are the subject of a public reprimand. The advertisements will appear in the BMJ and The Pharmaceutical Journal on the 19 December 2009 and in The Nursing Standard on 6 January 2010.
The case reports:
• Stiefel Laboratories Ltd – Case AUTH/2255/8/09
• Ferring Pharmaceuticals Ltd – Case AUTH/2257/8/09
were published in the November Code of Practice Review and are available in the ‘completed cases’ section of the PMCPA website at www.pmcpa.org.uk.
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Notes for editors
For more information please contact: Vicky Edgecombe, Head of Communications – Tel: 020 7747 8884, Mob: 07920 863650 or email vedgecombe@pmcpa.org.uk.
The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA; www.pmcpa.org.uk) was established by The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) on 1 January 1993 to operate the ABPI Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry at arm's length from the ABPI itself.
The Code and other information, including details about ongoing cases and completed cases, is available at www.pmcpa.org.uk. Complaints submitted under the Code are considered in the first instance by the Code of Practice Panel which consists of the Director, Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Authority, acting with the assistance of independent expert advisers where appropriate. Both the complainant and the respondent company may appeal to the Code of Practice Appeal Board against rulings made by the Panel.
The Appeal Board is chaired by an independent legally qualified chairman and includes independent members from outside the industry. Details of its composition can be found in the Constitution and Procedure.
