SC directs Centre to form panel on unethical pharma marketing

Supreme Court has directed the Centre to constitute a three-member committee to examine whether pharmaceutical companies’ marketing practices, including gifts and other benefits offered to doctors, require statutory regulation. A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued the direction while hearing a plea seeking action against unethical interactions between drug companies and doctors.The proposed committee will consider stakeholders’ views and recommend whether a statutory framework is needed and, if so, what form it should take. The Centre has been asked to file an affidavit on compliance, with the matter listed for further hearing on January 29. 
The court noted concerns over the existing framework, which provides for action against doctors accepting benefits but does not have a corresponding statutory mechanism to regulate pharmaceutical companies offering such inducements. The issue comes amid the court’s separate scrutiny of medicine pricing and affordability, including a reported ten-fold gap between the retailer price and MRP of a cancer medicine. The issue arose on a petition by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India (FMRAI), seeking a legally binding mechanism to regulate pharmaceutical marketing practices and alleged unethical conduct involving medical professionals. The petition highlighted the use of expensive gifts, foreign trips, other freebies and high-pressure marketing tactics to influence doctors to prescribe particular medicines.
On September 8, the Centre had informed the apex court that it was setting up a three-member panel to suggest a statutory framework to ensure that pharmaceutical companies do not indulge in unethical practices. During the hearing that day, the Centre sought two months, saying the committee would submit its report and that it would be placed before the court for approval.