Tales from the PMCPA contd. - The Case of the Errant Email

An NHS clinical commissioning group employee complained that a Sanofi representative had persuaded an NHS employee to send, on his/her behalf, a promotional email via the NHS.net system to all GP practices in the area.  The email invited recipients to view a Sanofi promotional webcast.   The detailed response from Sanofi is given below.   The Panel noted that the email sent by the administrative assistant on behalf of the Sanofi representative had a subject heading of ‘FW:Sanofi GLP-1 Webcast’.  The email itself was headed ‘Sent on behalf of [named representative] – Sanofi’ ‘Practice Managers- please cascade’.  The email, signed by the representative as a ‘Diabetes Specialist’ (although the company was not stated), was an invitation to a webcast entitled ‘The Use of GLP-1 receptor agonist therapies, the evidence and practicalities’.  In the Panel’s view it was not clear from the email that the webcast was promotional or that it had been solely produced by Sanofi.  The email was sent via the NHS.net system and stated that ‘We are holding a webcast entitled….’.  It could be argued that the impression given was that the meeting was an NHS-led meeting with sponsorship from Sanofi and not a Sanofi-led promotional meeting.  The Panel noted that although the email did not refer to the meeting as an NHS meeting, it was likely to appear to recipients that the NHS trust endorsed the meeting as it had been se...
Source: PharmaGossip - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs