The Department of Pharmaceuticals under the Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers of GOI, had issued the Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024 on March 12, 2024, with the objective to enhance ethical conduct and bring more transparency to the marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies.
UCPMP has put great reliance and trust in Pharmaceutical Associations, by giving them opportunity to empower themselves for the role of Guardianship w.r.t effective implementation of UCPMP.
Some of the key expectations from these Pharmaceutical Associations are as under:
- All pharmaceutical associations must establish an Ethics Committees for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (ECPMP).
- The pharmaceutical associations shall set up a resolute UCPMP portal on their website, along with the detailed procedure for lodging of complaints and take further necessary steps for the code’s implementation.
- All pharma associations will share on their website the details of complaints received i.e., the nature of complaint, the company against whom the complaint has been made, the present status of the complaint, including action taken by the ECPMP, and such details should remain uploaded for five years.
Notably, most of the reputed Pharmaceutical Associations has already developed and updated their systems in consonance with the provisions of UCPMP and now onus is on pharmaceutical companies to pull up their systems ASAP.
