Drug companies pay around £40m a year to healthcare professionals in payments, gifts and hospitality. Payments are made for a number of reasons, including sponsorship of medical education, attendance at medical events or acting as advisers.
Doctors have always denied that taking drug company money influences their judgment in any way about a medicine, but suspicions have lingered.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) says the relationship it has with healthcare professionals “has long been a positive driver for advancements in patient care and the progression of research”.
This year, for the first time, details of payments to UK healthcare professionals are to be published. From June, patients will be able to use a publicly searchable database to find out if a healthcare professional has received any payments from a pharmaceutical company.
This seems to be a popular move among those in the sector; a poll conducted by the Guardian’s Healthcare Professionals Network revealed that 94% of the 247 people who took part agreed that payments by pharmaceutical companies to healthcare professionals should be published.
Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, plans to introduce a UK “sunshine rule” (named after the Physician Payment Sunshine Act in the US) on dealings between NHS staff and pharmaceutical firms.
How and why does the pharmaceutical industry work with healthcare professionals? What are the pros and cons of disclosing payments to healthcare professionals? Do the new measures go far enough? What role do healthcare professionals have in improving understanding and openness? What does all of this mean for patients?
Join us from 1.45 to 3.45pm on Monday 6 June to discuss these questions and more.
The panel
Virginia Acha, executive director, research, medical and innovation, ABPI
Dr Peter Gordon, campaigner for transparency in medicine
Dr David Strain, Medical Academics Staff Committee, BMA
Dr Naeem Nazem, medical advisor, MDDUS
David Eves, head of compliance, Chugai Pharma Marketing Ltd
Dr Waheed Jamal, vice president – medical, Europe, GlaxoSmithKline plc
Jeremy Taylor, chief executive, National Voices
Christine Cameron, Compliance and ethics lead for UK and Ireland, Bristol Myers Squibb
The live chat is not video or audio-enabled but will take place in the comments section (below). You may also get in touch via sarah.johnson@theguardian.com or @GdnHealthcare on Twitter.
Discussion commissioned and controlled by the Guardian, funded by ABPI
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