Pharmaceutical Manufacturers urged state authorities to fight fake drugs

Accra, Sept. 24, GNA – The International
Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) has called
on state authorities to prevent fake drugs from eroding the trust between
patients, healthcare professionals and manufacturers of genuine medicines.

Discussants at the two-day business ethics and
integrity seminar agreed that fake products undermined patient’s trust in
healthcare systems.

The World Health Organisation estimates that
as much as 30 percent of drugs on the Ghanaian market are fake.

The seminar themed; “Business Integrity Days”
which brought together participants from healthcare industry included
representatives from national pharmaceutical trade associations, ethics and
compliance professionals, general managers, healthcare professionals, medical
and scientific advisors as well as in-house counsels and sales representatives.

The seminar, which was part of the IFPMA’s
mission to support efforts worldwide to uphold ethical standards, also
discussed the progress Ghana and other African countries have been making in
raising their standards in the ethics and business integrity space, which was
contributing to IFPMA’s goal to create a level playing field in Africa.

A press statement acknowledged that an
efficient healthcare system depended on mutual trust between manufacturers of
medicines and vaccines, governments and health authorities, healthcare
professionals and patients and that the challenge was frequently to apply
business ethics and integrity into the day to day reality of the healthcare
community.

The programme provided practical training on
how to interact with healthcare professionals namely doctors, nurses and
pharmacists with regards to promotional and medical information, how to
interact with patient organisations, and how to set up and run successful
compliance programmes.

Participants were informed about the new IFPMA
Code of Practice to be launched in January 2019.

Participants also received training on the
local implementation of the soon to be launched new IFPMA Code of Practice.

The Code, aims to build trust within the
healthcare community and the public, guiding all the companies and associations
who are members of IFPMA to operate, act and communicate in an ethical manner.

Since it was first drawn up in 1981, the Code
has been constantly revised in order to keep up with society’s expectation for
the research-based pharmaceutical industry.

This latest sixth edition, coming into force
on January 1, 2019, includes a global ban on gifts and promotional aids for
prescription-only medicines.

Thomas Cueni, Director General of the IFPMA,
explained: “Society’s expectations of the R&D-based biopharmaceutical
industry, quite rightly, constantly raise the bar. We need to meet these
expectations and live up to our commitments wherever we operate in the world,
to win and retain the trust patients place in our products.

It is important that we train and offer
guidance to our members companies and associations about the Code of Practice.
We are pleased that this event has attracted such a high level of engagement,
which clearly demonstrates a keen desire among medicine manufacturers and
healthcare professionals to behave ethically”.

GNA

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