To address the needs of transparency reporting detailed in clause 24 of the 2016 code of practise, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is publishing details of payments and other benefits in kind made by the industry to healthcare professionals, healthcare organisations and other relevant decision makers.

The database can be found here 

The data shows that in 2015, industry spent a total of £340.3m on working with health professionals and organisations, of which £229.3m (67%) is for activities related to the research and development of new medicines.

The remaining £111m (33%) of non-research and development activities is grouped into payments made to individual healthcare professionals and healthcare organisations

Typically an estimated 70% of individual healthcare professionals are giving their consent for this information to be disclosed on a named basis.

Companies spent an estimated average of £1,550 per healthcare professional and around £9,506 per healthcare organisation.

Individual recipients of the above payments can be searched on the database by a number of criteria including the name of the doctor, nurse, pharmacist, healthcare professional or organization and their professional address.

The average amount invested per company is around £3.1m. 84% of companies reported total investments of under £5 million. Companies that paid more than £5 million spent, on average, 71% on research activities.

Comment: This is a big step in transparency and demonstrates that TOV is now an established part of the modern medical meeting. As a sector we are required to be part of that solution, delivering on needs where required and consulting in best practice solutions where we can.