Unethical mktg: Govt forms committee to tighten noose around pharma firms

The Central government has recently formed a five-member high-level committee headed by Indian government's policy think-tank NITI Aayog's member (Health) V K Paul to study a legal mechanism to regulate the marketing and promotional activities of the pharmaceutical companies in the country. The committee was constituted on the recommendation of Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Chemicals and Fertilizers, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya.

That the government attaching high priority to this issue is clear from the fact the committee has senior most officials as its members including secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) S Aparna, secretary of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Rajesh Bhushan and chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Nitin Gupta as members and a joint secretary (policy) from the DoP as its member secretary. The government has constituted this high-level committee to hammer out a legal mechanism to address the issue of pharmaceutical companies giving inducements for promoting their medicines and other healthcare products.

The five-member committee will also review various other issues pertaining to the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) and is expected to submit its report in 90 days. The committee can bring in members from the law department if required, and it will examine the provisions government departments have to regulate pharmaceutical marketing practices and align interventions for implementation by the healthcare industry. It will also examine the related issues on the requirement of legally enforceable mechanisms for regulating marketing practices, including study of the practices across the globe.

The government has taken a decision to this effect after coming across the fact that several pharmaceutical companies are spending crores of rupees on marketing of their products. Recently Micro Labs Limited was accused of spending huge amounts of money on branding of anti-fever medicine, Dolo-650 mg which was widely sold during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. It is a fact that unethical marketing practice by the pharmaceutical companies has been a major issue the country has been facing for a long time now.

Though the DoP had come out with the UCPMP way back in June 2011 to arrest the unethical marketing practice of bribing of doctors by the pharma companies, it remained largely on paper as it was a voluntary code. After releasing the marketing code, the DoP had then stated that its implementation will be reviewed after six months and if it is found that it has not been implemented effectively by the pharma companies, the government would consider making it a statutory code. In a country like India where even the mandatory laws are very often violated rather than complying, the less said the better about the implementation of a voluntary code like UCPMP. But, instead of making it mandatory after six months, the government dragged its feet on the issue. Finally, after almost three years, the DoP came out with a revised UCPMP in 2015, which was also voluntary.

As the code lacked penal provisions to deter the wrongdoers, a large section of the pharma companies continued to indulge in bribing the doctors. As voluntary compliance failed to materialize in the absence of any deterrence, the DoP finally decided to give the code some teeth. So, in September 2015, it came out with a plan to make the marketing code mandatory with legal backing and penal provisions by introducing it under the Essential Commodities (EC) Act, 1955. But, due to stiff opposition from the industry and industry associations, the issue is still entangled in the bureaucratic red-tapism. The industry has aired its apprehension that bringing the code under the EC Act will create an unrealistic environment of fear instead of creating an environment for compliance. Now that more than 11 years have lapsed since it first introduced the code, the government should now give some teeth to the UCPMP by making it a mandatory marketing code. The profession of pharmaceuticals/ medicine is widely acknowledged as a noble one. Apart from being a source of livelihood, it contains inherent elements of sacrifice and service towards the ailing humanity.

In manufacturing, selling, distributing and marketing medical substances, which include patent drugs, a pharmaceutical company enjoys great power over people and must conversely be charged with strict accountability of doing its utmost to safeguard the health and lives of people. Given the highly pernicious influence and power of the pharmaceutical industry over medicines, which are a social good because of their significance for individual lives, not only the production, sale and distribution of medicines but also the marketing thereof, including both direct advertising and indirect promotion, become important public issues. It is a laudable decision by the Union Minister to form a high-level committee. It should come out with a lasting solution to the issue which will have direct impact on the pharmaceutical industry as well as the patients also.

(The author is freelance journalist with varied experience in different fields)