Our sales and marketing effort centres on sharing knowledge and information about our medicines to support their safe and effective use.
Feedback on how our medicines are working on a daily basis is an important aspect of our continuous commitment to patient safety.
We recognise that some aspects of the marketing of pharmaceuticals raises concerns among some stakeholders.
We are committed to communicating information about our medicines accurately, effectively and in a proper manner worldwide.
Each of our marketing companies has a national code of practice in place that is in line with our own global policies and all relevant external laws and codes.
We take breaches of codes and regulations very seriously.
Driving high ethical standards across all of our sales and marketing activity is a top priority for us. It’s an important part of our overall commitment to patient safety and to delivering business success responsibly.
As a global prescription pharmaceutical company, we market our medicines worldwide to doctors and other healthcare professionals, and to those who pay for healthcare, including governments.
Prescription medicines can bring great benefit to patients but their safe and effective use depends on prescribers having a wide range of information about these potent agents. Much of that information comes from pharmaceutical companies. We believe that marketing plays an important role in ensuring that up-to-date information is provided to those who need it to support the safe and effective use of our medicines. Such interactions also help us get important feedback on how our therapies are working on a day-to-day basis.
Product marketing is core to the commercial success of any business. We use various channels including the Internet, to provide information about our medicines. Face to face contact between representatives and healthcare professionals remains a highly effective way of highlighting new developments and keeping healthcare professionals up-to-date. For a few products, we use direct-to-consumer advertising in the US, where it is an approved practice but in most countries it is illegal to promote prescription only medicines to the public.
We recognise that the marketing of pharmaceuticals raises some concerns among stakeholders.
The main concerns expressed are:
- Whether all the claims made for medicines are balanced, fair and can be fully supported by the clinical evidence.
- Whether funding of education for doctors and healthcare professionals may inappropriately cause them to alter their clinical judgement in favour of our products.
- Inappropriate and unethical payments or gifts to doctors and healthcare professionals to encourage them to favour our products.
- Funding of patient groups to lobby healthcare authorities to provide access to one of our products.
- Where allowed, advertising prescription drugs directly to patients encourages them to ask their doctor for a specific treatment.
- Promotion of medicines outside of their approved uses
We are fully aware of these concerns.
We work within detailed legislation and codes, both external and our own, that set clear limits of acceptability for our promotional materials and activities. We monitor compliance with these codes very carefully and the penalties for individuals who transgress are serious and rigorously enforced.
Our marketing departments and sales representatives are highly trained in what they may and may not say about our products, and how they may interact with healthcare professionals.
This section of our website explains the steps we take to make sure all our sales and marketing is conducted ethically and supports patient care.
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310.10 SEK
At 21-Nov-2009 06:25 GMT
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