The Ethics of Pharmaceutical Industry Support

Abstract

With shrinking allocations to medical institutions and increasing competition for budgetary allocations amongst medical institutions all over the world, medical professionals are looking more and more towards the pharmaceutical and other medical related industries f or help in conducting research and organizing scientific conferences. While the increasing involvement ofpharmaceutic and medical companies in such ventures has been more and more accepted and becoming acceptable, it not without many apparent and hidden problems. If costs are to be cut, all fringe benefits to all concerned are to be kept trimmed to the minimum. This itself will guide all concerned as to appropriateness of the support being sought from or given by the industry. More importantly, all grants, scholarships, f inancial or other support given by the industry to institutions or professionals must be open and available for scrutiny by any concerned professional body or agency. This in itself will ensure no unholy collusion between any unscrupulous elements that may exist in the industry or among the professional. Also professional bodies must lay down some guidelines for obraining support from the industry.