Doctors rue delay in making Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices mandatory

Ludhiana, September 27, 2017: The Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Practices (ADEH) has criticized government for not taking any steps to make the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) mandatory despite several representations from the civil society groups.
In a statement here today, Dr GS Grewal and Dr Arun Mitra, Members of ADEH
Said this code even after nearly three years of its announcement has not been made mandatory. The code was announced by the ministry of petroleum and chemicals - department of pharmaceuticals on December 12, 2014 and was to be implemented voluntarily from January 2015 for six months.
The alliance said, the government was supposed to make it mandatory after that. But almost after 2 years and 10 months the code is still voluntary, they added.
"This is totally contrary to the day to day announcements by the government against corruption", they said, while observing that knowing well that the pharmaceutical industry indulges in huge corruption by enticing the medical professionals with expensive gifts including foreign travel, it seems that the government is sleeping over it intentionally and seems to be hand in glove with some corrupt pharma giants.
The code prohibits any pharmaceutical company to give expensive gifts to the doctors to make them write their products. This is also in accordance with the MCI code of ethics. The income tax department has recently raided the pharma giant USV to see if there is any such involvement of giving freebies to the doctors. But in the absence mandatory code this exercise may fall flat, the alliance warned.