ABPI launches revamped Code of Practice

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has launched the 2021 Code of Practice, alongside new ABPI Principles, to encourage companies to operate to high ethical standards.

In what has been described as the most extensive revamp of the Code in more than 30 years, the 2021 edition, which went live on July 1, is built on the same foundations as its predecessors but is structured differently and contains several new requirements.

According to the Association, some new elements work to increase transparency and others are designed to help companies work together with the NHS “within an ethical framework to improve patient care”.

From this year, the ABPI is also putting a new emphasis on the ABPI Principles – benefiting patients, acting with integrity, promoting transparency and treating everyone with respect – which it says set out the behaviours that “embody the spirit of the Code” and should be built into member companies’ cultures and operating methods.

As such, it is asking senior leaders of member companies to “champion the adoption” of these new principles, drive their implementation and ensure staff behave in a manner consistent with them.

“We want everyone in pharmaceutical companies to live and breathe these from leadership teams and commercial leads to admin assistants and research scientists. It’s all of our responsibility to put the Code and its Principles into action,” said ABPI president Ben Osborn.

The new Code is now arranged in six themed sections, with a view to making it easier for companies to use in their day-to-day activities: overarching requirements; promotion to health professionals and other relevant decision makers; interactions with health professionals, other relevant decision makers and healthcare organisations; interactions with health professionals, other relevant decision makers, healthcare organisations, patient organisations and the public including patients and journalists; specific requirements for interactions with the public, including patients and journalists and patient organisations; and annual disclosure requirements.

Other changes include the introduction of the concept of collaborative working with healthcare organisations, highlighting the scope of projects for joint working between the industry and the NHS, and a new requirement to disclose payments in aggregate for contracted services paid to members of the public (including patients and journalists).

Also of note, with regard to the impact of the pandemic, the Code touches on temporary supply authorisations for new medicines for public health emergencies, including a new clause that a medicine with a temporary supply authorisation must not be promoted unless it is part of a campaign that has been approved by health ministers.

“The 2021 version of the Code has seen a substantial overhaul, and I’m confident that it will help companies keep to high standards and forge transparent and collaborative relationships for the benefit of patients,” noted ABPI chief executive Richard Torbett.
Meanwhile, the ABPI also announced the formation of a new Patient Advisory Council to provide its board and senior executive team with ‘meaningful patient engagement’.

The council will be comprised of six senior leaders from the patient charity sector, who will provide input on key policy issues to the ABPI board. They will also help to inform strategy, policy priorities and work plans across the Association.