Advert - Astellas Pharma Europe

For providing false information in response to Case AUTH/2747/1/15, (which was ruled in breach of the Code and related to arrangements for a meeting) and reporting the outcome of Case AUTH/2747/1/15 to its staff in a dismissive manner, Astellas Europe was ruled in breach of the following clauses of the Code:

Clause 2 - Bringing discredit upon, and reducing confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry.

Clause 9.1 - Failing to maintain high standards.

The Code of Practice Panel reported Astellas UK, which was responsible under the Code for its European parent, and Astellas Europe to the Code of Practice Appeal Board. The Appeal Board noted that the UK health professionals who attended the meeting had been provided with a corrective statement and a case report which was misleading (Case AUTH/2747/1/15).

This was totally unacceptable. The Appeal Board decided to require Astellas UK and Astellas Europe to issue a second corrective statement to all the UK attendees at the meeting (Case AUTH/2780/7/15); in addition both companies were publicly reprimanded and required to be audited.

Following these audits Astellas Europe subsequently admitted it had provided inaccurate information. This was considered by the Panel which again reported Astellas Europe and Astellas UK to the Appeal Board which noted an institutional failure with respect to compliance. The Appeal Board decided to require a third corrective statement, to publicly reprimand both companies and to report them to the ABPI Board. The ABPI Board suspended Astellas UK from membership of the ABPI for 12 months (subject
to review) commencing 24 June 2016.

The interim case report which includes the wording of the corrective statements is available at www.pmcpa.org.uk. The public reprimands appear on the front cover of the PMCPA August Code of Practice Review which is also available at www.pmcpa.org.uk.

Advert - August 2016