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GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK) is making major changes to its incentive schemes following a damaging
corruption scandal in China.
The
pharmaceuticals firm will stop paying doctors to promote its products through
speaking engagements.
Members of
its sales force will also no longer have individual sales targets.
Earlier
this year, Chinese police said GSK had transferred 3bn yuan ($489m; £321m) to
travel agencies and consultancies to help bribe doctors.
But the
company says the latest measures are not related to that continuing
investigation. Instead, it says, they are part of a wider effort to improve
transparency.
'Greater
clarity'
In a
statement, Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive of GSK, said: "Today we are
outlining a further set of measures to modernise our relationship with
healthcare professionals.
"These
are designed to bring greater clarity and confidence that whenever we talk to a
doctor, nurse or other prescriber, it is patients' interests that always come
first."
As well as
stopping payments to doctors for making speeches, GSK is also ending payments
to healthcare professionals for attending medical conferences.
A
spokesperson told the BBC that there were "perceived conflicts of interest
with that way of working".
GSK plans a
new system under which independent organisations, such as universities, can
approach GSK for a grant if they want a particular doctor to attend a medical
conference.
Doctors
'satisfied'
In a
statement, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the British
Medical Association (BMA), which represents doctors, said: "Whilst we
agree that GSK should not directly sponsor doctors going to meetings, we are
satisfied that they will continue to financially support education.
"It is
pleasing to see a large pharmaceutical company like GlaxoSmithKline recognise
that it can reduce the possibility of undue influence by rewarding employees
for providing high-quality information and education for doctors, rather than
for their sales figures."
GSK says
sales representatives will be rewarded for "technical knowledge" and
the "quality of the service they deliver to support improved patient
care". Their compensation will also be linked to the overall performance
of GSK.
Salespeople
in the US have already been working under those conditions since 2011.
A
spokesperson from GSK said: "It was always our intent to roll it out
globally."
Paying
doctors to make speeches and attend conferences is common in the
pharmaceuticals industry, but there is growing demand for reform.
"Where
GSK leads we must hope that other companies will follow," Fiona Godlee,
editor of the British Medical Journal and a campaigner against industry
influence in medicine, told the Reuters news agency.
"But
there is a long way to go if we are truly to extricate medicine from commercial
influence. Doctors and their societies have been too ready to compromise
themselves."
'Non-trivial'
Ben
Goldacre, author of the book Bad Pharma, is concerned about the quality of
advice received by doctors.
He told BBC
Radio 4: "Doctors get a lot of their education about which treatment works
best from the pharmaceutical industry itself - from doctors who have been paid
to give lectures about which drug is best.
"This
free education has been shown to be be biased in research and it's
non-trivial."
Andrew
Powrie-Smith, director at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical
Industry, told BBC Radio 4: "A number of companies I think are looking at
this area and different models of education are emerging."
He stressed
that by 2016 companies would have to disclose how much they pay individual
doctors.
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