Authorisation to come into effect on 16 May.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said it will grant conditional authorisation to Medicines Australia’s 18th Code of Conduct.
The ACCC’s final determination, released today, said a condition of authorisation to make sure all relevant transfers of value were reported would be that healthcare professionals were made aware that transfers of value would be reported before providing it.
This would avoid the potential for healthcare professionals to withdraw consent once a transfer was made, the ACCC said.
Medicines Australia had until 01 Oct 16 to amend the Code to reflect this, the ACCC said.
There would be a transitional year, from 01 Oct 15 to 01 Oct 16, where the Code as currently written would apply, and the 17th Code of Conduct would apply until 01 Oct this year, an ACCC spokesperson said.
Other conditions included that transparency data be published in a commonly accessible format and be made available for at least three years.
The ACCC has previously said it would not require the reporting of food and beverage expenditure (PD 09 Feb) but today said it might reconsider this if it became aware that removal of such reporting had shown “significant” increases in this expenditure.
Authorisation would be granted for five years and come into effect on 16 May, provided there was no application for review made, it said.
Medicines Australia had 21 days to go to the Australian Competition Tribunal or could re-write its Code in order that it did not require authorisation by the ACCC, the spokesperson said.
For more, see Monday’s Pharmacy Daily.
