The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7218 p475
5 October 2002

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (more)

Companies rebuked for misleading pharmacists

Two pharmaceutical companies have been reprimanded for trying to mislead pharmacists about the extent of their involvement in primary care activities.

The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority ruled that both Trinity and Wyeth had failed to uphold the high standards expected of companies under the code of practice for the promotion of medicines. The cases are reported in the PMCPA's quarterly report.

Trinity was the subject of a complaint from a primary care group pharmaceutical adviser. The adviser said that a representative of the company had given the impression that she was working with the PCG on prescribing budgets, asking if the PCG was happy for her to obtain information about prescribing. The complainant had not heard of the representative's alleged prescribing project and was not working on it before meeting her. Pharmaceutical advisers in two PCGs the representative named both confirmed that they were not involved either. The complainant said that the representative's behaviour was inappropriate and assumed that Trinity was trying to access prescribing data in an underhand fashion.

The authority said that there was an important difference between an activity being official PCG policy and simply holding meetings to discuss PCG activities. Trinity had been misleading about the extent to which its activities were endorsed.

In a separate case, an NHS trust audit pharmacist complained about Wyeth. The company had agreed to sponsor the printing of guidance on the use of proton pump inhibitors drawn up by a group of pharmacists and doctors and had agreed that it would have no input to the guidance. After printing, the company added a covering letter which stressed its involvement and omitted the names of some of those involved.

The PMCPA censured Wyeth for issuing unclear instructions about the printing of the letter and for not reading a proof of the letter before distribution.