Why Big Pharma needs the disinfectant of sunlight

THE pharmaceutical industry makes a huge contribution to the public purse and the medicines produced by its members help millions of patients every year.

If it was not for research and development carried out every year by drug companies, new products would never come on to the market.

However, caution must also applied: pharmaceutical firms are not charities and they are motivated by profit and market share.

A huge chunk of the NHS budget goes on drugs every year and the firms are single-minded in pursuit of these revenues. So-called “Big Pharma” also gives “generously” to charity: many patient groups are funded by industry and then, miraculously, demand that their funders’ products are approved.

Our revelations today about the pharma firms funding healthcare professionals and hospitals are concerning. On one level, it is naive to suggest there should be no partnerships between the public sector and Big Pharma on health issues. Of course there should be.

It is equally true that collaborations between the industry and universities have, for decades, been positive for patients. However, there is something intrinsically worrying about individual doctors, nurses and pharmacists taking payments from pharmaceutical giants. Whether it be for funding medics to attend overseas events, paying conference registration fees, or even advising on products, the public will rightly have concerns about such arrangements.

To its credit, the ABPI – the trade body for Big Pharma – has created a huge database of payments to medics and institutions.

However, there is a catch: doctors and other health professionals must consent to their details being published.

In other words, they have a veto. This newspaper congratulates the consultants, nurses and pharmacists who agreed for details of their payments to be put into the public domain. They have embraced sunlight while some of their colleagues hide in the dark and these individuals should be commended.

The solution is obvious: change the system so it is compulsory for doctors, nurses and pharmacists to comply with the transparency database. Participation should be mandatory, not voluntary.