Recently a group of doctors requested the Government that the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices be made Mandatory to pharma companies
What is UCPMP code?
- Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices is issued by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (Government of India), is voluntary in its present form
- It was introduced in March 2012
- UCPMP stipulates that a drug must not be promoted without prior marketing approval from the competent authority authorizing its sale and supply.
- The code instructs drug companies to provide accurate, balanced, fair and objective information on drugs.
- UCPMP provides guidelines regarding the supply of drug samples and redressal mechanisms for resolving ethical conduct-related complaints.
- The code specifies guidelines to medical representatives to avoid ambiguous and misleading information in their literature and advertising campaigns.
- Claims for the usefulness of a drug must be based on an up-to-date evaluation of all the evidence
- According to the UCPMP code, once it is established that a breach of code has been made by a company, the committee can propose one of the following decisions against the alleged company to the head of the association for action which includes actions like suspend or expel the company from the Association, to reprimand the company and publish details of that Reprimand, to require the company to issue a corrective statement in the media (covering all media) which was used to issue promotional material textual & audiovisual, details of the proposed content and mode and timing of dissemination of the corrective statement must be provided by the company to the committee for approval.
