Caroline Kelly
Founder and Managing Director, Pharma Integrity
Pharmaceutical companies are committed to the ethical promotion of medicines, navigating outdated legislation with the help of market-leading compliance experts.
Clinicians are expected to keep up with all new treatments and advances, which is no easy feat. However, those who choose to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies get direct access to current treatment insight, including efficacy and safety information, to enable informed decisions.
Data compliance in medicine promotion
Companies must adhere to strict regulations regarding the use of data obtained from clinical trials for medicine advertising. They are required to promote the rational use of medicinal products, aligning with approved indications, appropriate patient populations plus correct dosage and administration while emphasising usage precautions. Ultimately, clinicians must balance medicine efficacy with safety considerations.
Commitment to ethical promotion
Caroline Kelly, Founder and Managing Director of Pharma Integrity, a female-led healthcare consultancy, advises pharmaceutical companies on compliance excellence. She explains: “Pharmaceutical companies are unanimous at putting patients front and foremost. To achieve this, the amount of internal resourcing, funding, training of staff, internal structures, processes and standards, which go into all their activities, is vast.”
Ultimately, clinicians must balance
medicine efficacy with safety considerations.
Challenges of outdated legislation
The statutory instrument, which governs the advertising of medicines in Ireland, hasn’t been updated since 2007. According to Kelly: “Companies are being provided with new opportunities, systems and manners in which they can engage with healthcare professionals, patients and the public, which do not fit into the structures of existing legislation or industry codes of practice.”
It is becoming increasingly difficult for pharmaceutical companies to optimise internal processes while continuing to align with such outdated legislation.
Medicine promotion ethics for public health
Holding extensive industry experience, Kelly is passionate about the work being done behind the scenes to ensure ethical promotion of medicines. Pharma Integrity is uniquely positioned to navigate both the UK and Ireland with operational confidence.
She says: “The industry is under a lot of scrutiny from the regulator for non-compliance of advertising; companies genuinely want to know what they can be doing differently and better, and Pharma Integrity provide the forum for them to achieve that.”
Providing a host of innovative services, events and programmes are tailored to individual companies’needs, including a cross-industry compliance network championing good practice between all. “Today, stakeholders — health professionals, payers, patients and the public — care about ‘how’ you have achieved successes, not just ‘what’ you have achieved. Reputation matters,” she adds.
With market-leading compliance experts helping behind the scenes, we can have confidence that the pharmaceutical industry is ensuring the best for patients, healthcare professionals and the public.
