Karen Borrer, Head of Corporate Communication at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) talks about Disclosure UK and its place in the journey towards greater pharmaceutical industry transparency.

Recorded 1 November 2017 at a MedComms Networking event in Oxford. Produced by NetworkPharma.tv

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ABSTRACT:

Disclosure UK is an online, searchable database that shows payments and benefits in kind – known as transfers of value (ToV) – made to healthcare professionals (HCPs), other relevant decision makers involved with prescribing and purchasing, and healthcare organisations (HCOs) for working in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. Live since June 2016, Disclosure UK is part of a Europe-wide, industry-led initiative, laid out in the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) HCP/HCO Disclosure Code and the ABPI Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry and is something that Code signatory pharmaceutical companies must complete annually to be compliant.

Data shown on Disclosure UK covers the key areas of collaboration between industry and HCPs, including participation in advisory boards, attending and contributing to national and international conferences, and participating in medical education and training funded by pharmaceutical companies. The database also shows ToVs for collaboration with HCOs, including provision of grants and donations and sponsorship of events for the provision of medical education to HCPs, and the total amounts that pharmaceutical companies spend annually on research and development activities with HCPs and HCOs, most commonly in clinical trials.

Disclosure UK is the latest step in the journey towards greater transparency concerning industry collaborations with HCPs, HCOs and patient organisations, which started with the introduction of the first ABPI Code of Practice in 1958. 2015/16 saw a rise in both the number of companies disclosing ToVs and the percentage consenting to share their data online. Backed by NHS England, the Association of the Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) and the General Medical Council (GMC), the ABPI are now working closely with the NHS towards a target of 100 per cent disclosure by 2020.

Written by Penny Gray, Freelance Medical Writer

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We are building a library of free webcasts, like this one, for the global MedComms Community and others at http://www.networkpharma.tv and we’d welcome your suggestions for new topics and speakers.

Full details of this MedComms Networking event are at http://medcommsnetworking.com/event_011117.html

Karen’s presentation (PDF format) is at http://medcommsnetworking.com/presentations/borrer_011117.pdf

Karen’s Linkedin page is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenborrer/

More about the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) can be found at http://www.abpi.org.uk

More about Disclosure UK can be found at http://www.abpi.org.uk/our-work/disclosure/Pages/disclosure.aspx

More about the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) can be found at https://efpia.eu

Filming and technical direction by Mario Crispino, Freelance Cameraman & Editor

[For the avoidance of doubt: this video is intended to be freely accessible to all. Please feel free to share and use however you like. Cheers Peter Llewellyn, Director NetworkPharma Ltd and Founder of the MedComms Networking Community activity at http://www.medcommsnetworking.com]