Self-Regulation in Drug Promotion: A UK-Sweden Comparative Study

Drug Promotion in the United Kingdom and Sweden: A Study of Pharmaceutical Industry Self-Regulation – Case 4

In many European countries and the UK, drug promotion is controlled by codes of practice managed by the pharmaceutical industry under a system known as self-regulation (Mulinari, Merlo and Zetterqvist 2015). Self-regulation is often voluntary since the pharmaceutical industry is able to design and follow its own set of rules. The UK and Sweden are the two countries frequently praised for their effective self-regulation (Mulinari, Merlo and Zetterqvist 2015).

One of the advantages of comparing the UK and Sweden is that these two countries have similar self-regulatory schemes (Mulinari, Merlo and Zetterqvist 2015).Both countries are

Consequently, this led to 28 serious violations which constitute 28% of total drug promotion violations in the UK. Discredit and confidence cases also had 92 case breaches; however, by percentage they constituted a higher number of serious violations than any other category. Discredit and confidence represented 92 of a total of 100 serious violations. Market authorization (promotion of a drug prior to marketing approval) indicated 88 case breaches which resulted in 20 serious

The industry has not been able to stop itself from partaking in multiple and sometimes highly unethical practices. There is a lack of restraint when it comes to market authorization and information violations. The interpretation of this data only leads the public to think that the consequences for all those violations are too low. Evidently, the fines and charges incurred by pharmaceutical companies’ average about 0.014% (Sweden) and 0.005% (UK) of estimated yearly revenues (Mulinari, Merlo and Zetterqvist 2015). These regulations and consequences only serve the private interests in both the UK and Sweden. Furthermore, charges in the UK and Sweden should not be designed to damage corporations financially; nevertheless, the fines need to serve as a deterrent to unethical behaviour which can impact prescribing practices of medical professionals. Also, as a last measure, regulators should consider using non-economic measures such as publications which can lead to damaging the reputation of the pharmaceutical company. Contrary to popular belief, self-regulation at many times can serve the private interest of corporations as there are no barriers or consequences to