Title I - PROVISIONS OF THE CODE
CHAPTER II - Interaction with Healthcare Professionals and Organisations
11. SCIENTIFIC AND PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS5
The following rules will be applied to all types of meetings that are organised or sponsored by a pharmaceutical company or under its control and to all participants in said meetings, be they Healthcare Professionals or any other persons who, in exercising their professions, may perform or influence the activities of prescribing, purchasing, distributing, dispensing or administering a medicine.
11.1. Pharmaceutical companies may organise or collaborate in meetings that are exclusively of a scientific-professional nature. Organising or collaborating in meetings that contain elements of entertainment or entertainment activities or are of a recreational nature is prohibited. The welcome cocktail, working luncheons and gala dinners that normally occur within official programs at scientific conferences and meetings are not included in this prohibition provided they are reasonable and moderate and do not include additional elements (cultural, leisure or entertainment, etc.). In all cases, a maximum cost of 70 Euro (including taxes) per guest applies for any form of hospitality associated with meals. Payment for a meal that costs more than the maximum threshold mentioned above will be considered a breach of the Code. For meetings that take place outside of Spain, the maximum threshold established by the National Association of the country where the meetings occurs will apply. Therefore, for hospitality offered outside of Spain involving meals, the general rule provided for in article 19.4 ("If there is a conflict between rules of the different applicable codes for a given activity, the most strict or restrictive rule will apply") will not be applicable.
Payment to Healthcare Professionals for any form of hospitality that takes place at the margins of a scientific-professional context is considered to be an activity/ practice that is a breach of the Code.
At educational activities or scientific-professional meetings conducted in virtual or remote format, no type of hospitality should be offered (social events, travel, accommodation and/or living expenses). This general principle applies both to meetings organised or mainly sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, and to meetings organised by third parties.
11.2. Hospitality at professional or scientific meetings must always be reasonable and the cost must not exceed the cost the Recipients would be willing to pay in the same circumstances. The concept of hospitality includes the real costs of travel, registration and accommodation that are paid by the pharmaceutical company. These costs must be moderate and not exaggerated and will be applied to the days in which the scientific meeting is planned. In this regard, hospitality may not be extended beyond what is reasonable for conducting the meeting, nor may it include sponsorship or organisation of entertainment activities (sports, leisure activities, etc.).
Hospitality must always be accessory to the primary object of the meeting. The scientific objectives must constitute the primary focus in the organisation of these meetings. Hospitality offered by a pharmaceutical company must be limited to including strictly necessary logistical means, in all cases reasonable and moderate, that allow the Healthcare Professional to attend the meeting and not any other expenses.
11.3. Hospitality may not be extended to persons other than Healthcare Professionals.
11.4. Payments must not be made to physicians or groups of physicians, either directly or indirectly, to rent rooms for meetings unless it is duly accredited that the payments are for meetings of a scientific or professional nature.
11.5. When meetings, conferences, symposia and similar events are sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, this fact will appear on all documents related to the meeting in addition to any type of essay, paper or document that is published in relation to them.
11.6. Payment of reasonable honoraria and reimbursement of personal expenses, including travel, is acceptable to moderators and speakers at these meetings, conferences, symposia and similar events of a professional or scientific nature.
11.7. Pharmaceutical companies established in Spain that belong to business groups with headquarters or subsidiaries or, in general, associated companies located in foreign countries will be responsible for compliance with this Code by these affiliated companies for all activities related to promotion or interaction (i) taking place in Spain with Healthcare Professionals regardless their country of professional practice, and (ii) with Healthcare Professionals who conduct their professional activities in Spain, regardless the country where the meeting takes place. In any meeting, the rule established in subsection 11.1 with regard to hospitality limits will apply.
11.8. Meetings of a scientific or promotional nature, organised or sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, must be previously communicated in accordance with the stipulations of Title II, Rules of Procedure of the Control Bodies. Meetings that form part of projects communicated by pharmaceutical companies do not need to be communicated again in accordance with the provisions of articles 16.2 and 35 of the Code ("principle of non-duplication").
11.9. Failure to communicate a meeting of a scientific and promotional nature, when its communication is obligatory, will constitute a breach of this Code.
11.10. Companies may not organise or sponsor meetings that take place outside of Spain (meetings abroad) unless it makes more sense from a logistical standpoint, because:
a) the majority of invited participants are from a foreign country; or because
b) a resource or relevant expertise is located in a foreign country and it is the object or subject matter of the meeting. This assumption (b) must receive prior authorization from the Code of Practice Surveillance Unit.
In the case of organising or sponsoring meetings abroad, in addition to the Spanish Code, companies must also respect the specific stipulations of the Code of Practice of the country in which the meeting will take place, as established in article 19.4.
11.11. Companies must comply with the criteria found in the applicable codes with regard to selecting and sponsoring Healthcare Professionals to attend meetings.
11.12. In no case may money be offered to compensate merely for the time spent by Healthcare Professionals in attending the meeting.
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Regarding organising scientific and professional meetings, a company must not settle for formal compliance with a given criterion in an isolated manner. The behavior of the companies must be guided by two fundamental principles:
1. The quality of the scientific-professional programme must be the main focus of interest of the meeting.
2. The location chosen for holding it must be appropriate for the scientific and educational purpose of the meeting and the levels of hospitality reasonable.
These two criteria are easily summed up in one statement: Ask yourself if, as the company organising the meeting, you would like all of the details of the meeting to be widely known publicly in, for example, the media. If the answer is yes, the meeting is surely in line with the provisions of the Code.
11.1. – 11.2. Besides being moderate and secondary to the main purpose of the meeting, hospitality offered within the framework of congresses and scientific meetings should avoid situations that could result in an inappropriate image for the pharmaceutical industry.
In this regard, the company must ensure that the location where the scientific meeting takes place conveys a suitable image. Therefore, locations which are solely touristic or associated solely or primarily with leisure, recreational or sporting activities should be avoided. The locations where the activities take place should be selected by taking into account ease of travel for the participants, costs, and the suitability and appearance of the location.
Travel times to the location where the meeting takes place will be adjusted to the duration of the scientific meeting. Therefore, planning the trip will depend on the scientific programme, avoiding modification of the plan before or after the meeting takes place in consideration of activities different from the meeting itself (cultural or recreational).
In this regard, hospitality may only be extended to the day after or before the meeting, in accordance with efficient travel planning. Physicians may extend their stay in the destination location whenever the additional costs of accommodation, travel and subsistence incurred by said extension are charged to the physician and does not involve any change to the initial program for the majority of participants.
The companies will be directly responsible for paying the necessary expenses (registrations, airline or train tickets, hotels, meals, etc.) for the participation of the Healthcare Professionals in courses, conferences and scientific meetings, and may use intermediary agencies if the complexity of the meeting justifies their use. No monetary reimbursement can be made to the Healthcare Professional for expenses incurred to suppliers that should have been paid directly by the pharmaceutical company, except in the case of minor costs for travel (taxis, mileage, etc.) with appropriate justification of said expenses.
The provision of travel grants in cash or similar to Healthcare Personnel invited to conferences or meetings are not considered acceptable.
The scientific content at conferences and meetings must take up the majority of the duration of the meeting with a minimum of 60% of each working day.
In case of doubt, an 8-hour working day will be calculated. Excluded from this is time needed for travel, which must be the most direct travel possible
As a summary of this section, it is important that companies value the appearance and content of the meeting. A useful criterion for evaluating compliance with the Code is to ask whether the company would like all of the details of the organisation of the meeting to be widely known publicly.
11.3. If Healthcare Professionals who are authorized to administer medicines participate in conferences and scientific meetings, the same rules on hospitality that apply to Healthcare Professionals authorized to prescribe or dispense medicines will apply.
The presence of accompanying persons at meetings organised by the industry should not be allowed, even when they pay their own expenses, as this can damage the image of the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry should not participate or collaborate in meetings organised by third parties if these parties promote the attendance of accompanying persons.
11.6. With regard to the payment of fees, market prices and number of hours worked or the service actually provided must be taken into account. Any remuneration for services rendered (papers, presentations, etc.) by Healthcare Professionals shall be made directly by the pharmaceutical company and documented by means of a contract and an original invoice that the pharmaceutical company must register in its files for possible inspection. Except in justified cases, no agreements will be made to make payments to Healthcare Professionals through third parties.
11.8 – 11.9. The communication of meetings is intended to facilitate the monitoring work of the Code of Practice Surveillance Unit. In no case should this be understood as implying authorization. The companies continue to be solely responsible for compliance with the Code in these meetings, regardless of whether or not they are communicated previously to the Code of Practice Surveillance Unit.
Given their inherent characteristics, the communication of educational activities or scientific-professional meetings conducted in virtual or remote format will be voluntary.
Meetings where prior communication is not obligatory will still be subject to the Code in all cases.
11.10. – 11.11. For the purposes of this article, scientific and professional meetings may be organised or sponsored in the Principality of Andorra under the same conditions that apply to any part of Spain.
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