Competition watchdog to grant conditional authorisation to Medicines Australia code.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has said it plans to grant authorisation to Medicines Australia’s 18th Code of Conduct, conditional upon a change to the proposed payment reporting.
Medicines Australia’s submitted Code meant individual payments would not be disclosed if a doctor did not consent to the reporting, and would only be reported in aggregate, which would make it difficult to use or rely upon the reporting, ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.
The organisation said it would require that all relevant transfers made by pharmaceutical member companies to healthcare professionals were reported, meaning companies would need to ensure the individual had agreed to have their details reported, or were reasonably aware of this.
The organisation also said while it supported the $120 per meal cap, it was considering a condition requiring “some form of continuing transparency” around hospitality provision.
“The ACCC has posed several possible approaches and is seeking interested party feedback.”
Subject to the conditions, the ACCC said it was proposing to grant authorisation for five years.
For more, see Monday’s Pharmacy Daily.
