{"id":7534,"date":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/23-08-2022\/uniform-code-for-pharmaceutical-marketing-practices-ucpmp\/"},"modified":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T00:00:00","slug":"uniform-code-for-pharmaceutical-marketing-practices-ucpmp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-08-2022\/uniform-code-for-pharmaceutical-marketing-practices-ucpmp","title":{"rendered":"Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) has accused the makers of the Dolo-650 tablet of spending Rs 1,000 crore to <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>distribute freebies<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> to doctors for <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>prescribing the medicine.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Background:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The controversy took place following the <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>income-tax raids<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> on Bengaluru-based drugmaker Micro Labs, makers of popular paracetamol brand Dolo-650.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Issue:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Gift-giving in the form of free dinners and drug samples to promotional merchandise \u2013 seems to be driving drugmakers\u2019 marketing \u2013 a marketing prescription deeply entrenched in the industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Case in Supreme Court:\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The Supreme Court is hearing a plea seeking <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>direction to the Centre to give UCPMP a statutory basis<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> &#8211; and make it effective, transparent, and accountable.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP):<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Marketing practices of pharma companies are guided by Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) since 2015, a voluntary code, enforced by pharma associations\/Companies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">At present, the UCPMP Code is applicable to Pharmaceutical Companies, Medical Representatives, Agents of Pharmaceutical Companies such as Distributors, Wholesalers, Retailers, and Pharmaceutical Manufacturer\u2019s Associations.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>Unethical Practices in Pharma Marketing<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Drug firms offer <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>freebies in cash and kind<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> to physicians to incentivise them to prescribe \u2018their drugs\u2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Helping doctors in <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>reputation-building exercises<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> by helping in articles publication, speaking at conferences etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Making doctors lead investigators<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> in clinical trials or as committee members for which they are paid heavily.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The global experience also shows that <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>voluntary code does not work<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align:justify\"><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The UCPMP should be <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>converted into Law<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">, as code for ethical marketing has not proved to be effective enough.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>Ethical marketing and promotion<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> should be brought within the ambit of the new Drugs, Medical Devices, and Cosmetics Act being formulated.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The government should mandate <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>periodic disclosures of payments<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> made by companies towards doctors and professional bodies, directly or indirectly via other parties, which should be accessible to the public.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">These disclosures should be made at intervals and put in the<\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong> public domain.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">The disclosures should include the <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">amount, purpose of expenditure, and the party paid.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>Source<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\">: <\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.business-standard.com\/article\/companies\/ethical-code-to-keep-doctor-drugmaker-nexus-at-bay-not-mandatory-yet-122082100396_1.html\" style=\"text-decoration-line:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><span style=\"color:#1155cc\">BS<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News The Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) has accused the makers of the Dolo-650 tablet of spending Rs 1,000 crore to distribute freebies to doctors for prescribing the medicine. About Background: The controversy took place following the income-tax raids on Bengaluru-based drugmaker Micro Labs, makers of popular paracetamol brand Dolo-650.\u00a0 Issue:\u00a0 Gift-giving in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[93,30],"class_list":["post-7534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-development-processes-development-industry","tag-gs-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/4878609Screenshot_20220822-210619_Chrome.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}