EFPIA Transparency Begins

Europe has recently pulled the trigger on their version of our Sunshine Act. While it is true that, with the exception of Denmark, France, and Portugal, the requirement to disclose does not have the force of law, information on money paid to individuals will be available for public scrutiny for the first time in Europe. However, with the exception of those three aforementioned countries, pharmaceutical companies that are responsible for collecting the information must get consent from each individual healthcare professional or organization before they can publish it. This move comes after a strong push by the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). EFPIA, which has many major pharmaceutical companies among its members, has issued a minimum standard for what is required for disclosure for its members. However, such a requirement that most countries involved require consent of professionals and organizations will likely result in differences in the level of compliance from country to country, and maybe even organization to organization. According to Andrew Powrie-Smith, responsible for implementation at EFPIA, "[t]here are differences in culture, differences in privacy law – Germany for instance has very strong laws – there are different socio-economic conditions in different countries, so inevitably there will be variation." It isn't just the variation in the level of consent from healthcare professionals and healthcare organizati...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs