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New ABPI code allows brand name use
Pharmaceutical companies will be able to use the brand
names of competitors’ medicines in their promotional materials from July
when a new version of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry’s
code of practice takes effect.
The deletion of the current prohibition is one of
a number of changes being made to the code. Other changes include a ban
on inducements to recommend a medicine, in addition to inducements to
prescribe, supply, administer or buy a medicine, and an extension of the
code to cover information provided on the internet.
Companies will now be able to produce advertisements
which cover three consecutive pages of a journal rather than two at present,
but, in order to boost legibility, prescribing information will need to
be set out for ease of reference and not in such a way that readers have
to turn the material around to read it.
The code is next expected to be reviewed in 2003.
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