Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America on Thursday is expected to announce new voluntary guidelines prohibiting gifts to doctors as part of pharmaceutical companies' marketing efforts, the New York Times reports.

The industry's Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals will ask pharmaceutical companies to set annual limits on the amount they will pay physicians to give educational lectures to colleagues, although the code does not specify the amount of the limit. The guidelines, which will take effect in January 2009, do not affect biotechnology firms and medical device suppliers. The guidelines do not limit payments to physicians for speaking or consulting arrangements. They also do not ban the "routine provision" of drug companies taking doctors out to expensive meals or buying lunch for an entire office, the Times reports.

The guidelines will ask CEOs of large drug makers to certify in writing that "they have policies and procedures in place to foster compliance with the code."

PhRMA President Billy Tauzin said, "This updated code fortifies our companies' commitment to ensure their medicines are marketed in a manner that benefits patients and enhances the practice of medicine." Merck CEO and PhRMA Chair Richard Clark said, "Informative, ethical and professional relationships between health care providers and America's pharmaceutical research companies are instrumental to effective patient care." The industry last updated its code for marketing practices in 2002, when it banned "dine and dash" events in which drug makers provide no-cost meals or other items or services to doctors in exchange for listening to a short sales pitch.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), who is co-sponsoring a bill to require drug makers to publicly disclose payments of more than $500, said, "We've been pushing to see reforms like this for some time now," adding, "Consumers will undoubtedly be the beneficiaries of these industry changes." Meanwhile, several states have passed or are considering legislation requiring drug makers to disclose payments to doctors, according to the Times.

Some industry critics dismissed the guidelines, noting they are voluntary, the Times reports. Sharon Treat, executive director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices, said, "It strikes me as an attempt to persuade people against doing anything that's serious" (Harris, New York Times, 7/10).

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