Pharma company spends ₹1.91 crore on foreign travel of doctors, gets reprimanded

The doctors were allegedly offered the freebie under the pretence of professional development; the code of marketing practices forbids pharmaceutical companies from offering travel and hospitality to healthcare professionals

The Apex Committee for Pharma Marketing Practices, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers, has found that AbbVie Healthcare India Private Ltd., a subsidiary of the U.S.-based AbbVie Inc., had sponsored international trips for 30 doctors by spending nearly ₹1.91 crore in breach of the Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP), 2024.

The doctors were allegedly offered the freebie under the pretence of professional development, noted an order issued by the Ministry earlier this week. It added that the case came to light based on an anonymous complaint accompanied by documents supporting the claims concerning unethical marketing practices.

Giving details of the case, the order notes that the anonymous complaint against the company included travel tickets and hotel accommodation under the guise of conference (Aesthetics and Anti-aging Medicine World Congress 2024) in Monaco and Paris.

“The supporting documents comprised AbbVie’s internal records, featuring a sales and expense tracker, outlining the expenditure for each doctor’s travel and copies of flight tickets and hotel booking vouchers,” it said.

Both UCPMP 2014 and 2024 forbid pharmaceutical companies from offering travel and hospitality to any healthcare professionals.

On receiving the information, the Department of Pharmaceutical (DoP) under the Ministry forwarded the complaint to the Ethics Committee for Pharma Marketing Practices set up by the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) which saw no irregularities in the company sponsorship. However, given the seriousness of the allegation, the complaint was also examined by the DoP’s special audit committee whose findings were completely opposite to that of the OPPI.

The complaint was forwarded to the apex committee for hearing where the alleged violator attempted to justify its breach as acceptable industry practice. It also sought to persuade that self-declaration determines when the code takes effect, to which the committee maintained that previous code is applicable till the new code takes effect. The company added that it has entered into a professional service agreement with these doctors to compensate them for their services.

Later the company, in its letter dated November 7, rejected the apex committee’s option for remedial action where AbbVie was asked to provide support to underprivileged patients in government hospitals for an amount equivalent to the violations computed by the special audit team.

The apex committee has now reprimanded AbbVie Healthcare India Pvt. Ltd. for unethical marketing practices and the Central Board of Direct Taxes has been asked to evaluate the tax liability of the company along with 30 doctors and act in accordance with the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Additionally, the National Medical Council has also been asked to act against the 30 doctors as per the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.

Speaking about the action taken, Babu K.V., member of advocacy group Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare said that both doctors and the pharma company have committed the same offence. “It seems that UCPMP is lenient to the company. It has been our longstanding demand to make UCPMP mandatory and punishment exemplary,’’ said Dr. Babu.

Published - December 26, 2024 08:08 pm IST