Clause 28 Annual Disclosure of Transfers of Value to Health Professionals, Other Relevant Decision Makers and Healthcare Organisations

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Clause 28
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28

  • Lawful Disclosure

    Companies must ensure that they have appropriate arrangements in place to lawfully disclose information about transfers of value and that recipients are aware of the process for disclosure.

  • Transfers of Value

    Disclosure is required even if the payments, etc. are made by overseas affiliates, head offices in the UK or overseas and UK-based offices.

28.1

Companies must document and publicly disclose annually certain transfers of value made directly or indirectly to health professionals, other relevant decision makers and healthcare organisations located in Europe. This includes any employee of a pharmaceutical company whose primary occupation is that of a practising health professional.

28.2

The transfers of value covered by Clause 28.1 are:

• collaborative working, including joint working, in accordance with Clause 20

• donations and grants provided to healthcare organisations, institutions and other organisations in accordance with Clause 23

• fees and expenses paid for contracted services between companies and institutions, organisations or associations of health professionals, in accordance with Clause 24.6

• support of attendance by health professionals and other relevant decision makers at events/meetings whether paid directly, indirectly or via another party in accordance with Clause 10.11

• fees and expenses paid for contracted services to health professionals and other relevant decision makers, or to their employers on their behalf, in relation to Clause 24.6

• sponsorship, including contributions to costs related to events/meetings paid to healthcare organisations or to organisations managing events on their behalf, which may include support of health professionals not known to the company via the healthcare organisation by way of registration fees, accommodation and travel, in accordance with Clause 10.12.

  • Clause 28.2 Further Information

    The clauses of the Code noted in Clause 28.2 should be consulted for further information about the requirements. In addition, the requirements of Clauses 10.1 and 10.11 should be borne in mind in relation to meetings.

  • Clause 28.2 Disclosure of Contributions to Costs Related to Events/Meetings

    If when providing sponsorship to a healthcare organisation, institution, other organisation, etc. in relation to their own event, a company contributes towards the overall cost of subsistence (food and drink), then this must be included in the disclosure of the cost of the sponsorship to the healthcare organisation, institution, other organisation, etc. Where a company supports individual health professionals or other relevant decision makers (directly or indirectly) to attend events/meetings, there is no requirement to disclose subsistence (food and drink) as in Clause 10.1.

28.3

Different categories of transfers of value to individual health professionals or other relevant decision makers can be aggregated on a category by category basis, provided that itemised disclosure would be made available upon request to the relevant recipient or the relevant authorities. Payments to healthcare organisations are required to be disclosed on a per activity basis.

28.4

Where a transfer of value is made to an individual health professional or other relevant decision maker indirectly via a healthcare organisation, such a transfer should be disclosed once only, preferably as being a transfer to the individual concerned.

28.5

Where recipients of transfers of value cannot be identified for legal reasons, the amount attributable to such transfers must be disclosed on an aggregate basis. The number of recipients involved must be stated together with the percentage of all recipients that they represent and the aggregate amount attributable to transfers of value to such recipients.

28.6

Each company providing transfers of value must publish a note summarising the methodologies used by it in preparing the disclosures and identifying each category of transfer of value. The note, including a general summary and/or country specific considerations, must describe the recognition methodologies applied and should include the treatment of multi-year contracts, VAT and other tax aspects, currency aspects and other issues relating to the timing and amount of transfers of value for the purposes of this Code.