Clause 22 - Meetings, Hospitality and Sponsorship
- Can meetings be held in restaurants?
- Can pharmaceutical companies host meetings at country embassy offices?
- Can promotional stands be put in the same room as a meeting?
- Can refreshments be provided from exhibition stands and, if so, what would be appropriate?
- Can third parties be used to organise meetings?
- How does the prohibition on medical and educational goods and services (MEGS) being provided to individuals for personal benefit apply to the provision of training or support to attend a conference?
- International congresses often send emails to those registered with information/advertisements about the meeting. Can a global parent company place content within such an email without it being considered as directed to UK health professionals?
- What are the Code requirements in respect to travel?
- What does the Code state about meeting venues?
- What is an acceptable number of company attendees to advisors at an Advisory Board Meeting?
22.1 Companies must not provide hospitality to members of the health professions and other relevant decision makers except in association with scientific meetings, promotional meetings, scientific congresses and other such meetings, and training. Meetings must be held in appropriate venues conducive to the main purpose of the event. Hospitality must be strictly limited to the main purpose of the event and must be secondary to the purpose of the meeting ie subsistence only. The level of subsistence offered must be appropriate and not out of proportion to the occasion. The costs involved must not exceed that level which the recipients would normally adopt when paying for themselves. It must not extend beyond members of the health professions or other relevant decision makers.
Please check the date of the Code that applies to the Case that you are looking at. The date of the complaint may vary from the activity/material alleged to have been in breach.
- Can sport and leisure venues be used for meetings?
- What are the relevant requirements for meetings when UK health professionals/other relevant decision makers are supported by pharmaceutical companies as delegates to a meeting outside the UK not organised by a pharmaceutical company?
- What are the relevant requirements for meetings when UK health professionals/other relevant decision makers attend a company organised meeting outside the UK as delegates?
- What needs to be certified or examined with respect to arrangements for health professionals etc who are delivering services under an agreement?
- Why is there no separate clause for medical education? Can a pharmaceutical company run a medical educational meeting which is wholly non-promotional, even if a company medicine is mentioned?
22.2 The cost of a meal (including drinks) provided by way of subsistence must not exceed £75 per person, excluding VAT and gratuities.
Please check the date of the Code that applies to the Case that you are looking at. The date of the complaint may vary from the activity/material alleged to have been in breach.
22.3 Payments may not be made to doctors or groups of doctors or to other prescribers, either directly or indirectly, for rental for rooms to be used for meetings.
22.4 When meetings are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, that fact must be disclosed in all of the papers relating to the meetings and in any published proceedings. The declaration of sponsorship must be sufficiently prominent to ensure that readers are aware of it at the outset.
Please check the date of the Code that applies to the Case that you are looking at. The date of the complaint may vary from the activity/material alleged to have been in breach.
22.5 Pharmaceutical companies must publicly disclose financial details of sponsorship of UK health professionals and other relevant decision makers in relation to attendance at meetings. Sponsorship in this context includes registration fees and the costs of accommodation and travel, both inside and outside the UK