Case Overview

A pharmaceutical company was fined and its illegal gains confiscated by the local market supervision and management department for providing lecture doctors with courseware introducing the indications of drugs and their comparative advantages with other competitors during academic activities, some meetings being unable to prove their authenticity, organizing doctors to participate in academic activities without the consent of the doctor's hospital, and directly paying labor fees to doctors. So, how should pharmaceutical companies regulate academic promotion activities, especially those involving paying lecture fees to medical staff?

Lawyer analysis

Pharmaceutical companies should conduct normal academic promotion and pay lecture fees in a "truthful, necessary, and reasonable" manner, and pay attention to the following points:

1. The purpose of academic promotion conferences/training: In order to avoid suspected unfair competition, it should be clarified that the purpose of academic promotion conferences/training is based on valuable academic exchanges and promotion activities, and is centered around medical professional knowledge, drug clinical applications, and other content, rather than illegal purposes such as promoting pharmaceutical companies' products, incentivizing sales, seeking trading opportunities, or competitive advantages.

2. Venue and schedule for academic promotion conferences/training: It should be avoided to hold them in tourist resorts or scenic spots, and the schedule should be reasonable and not too loose, avoiding arranging leisure activities such as tourism and entertainment for participants.

3. The audience identity of academic promotion conferences/training: It should be ensured that the participants of academic promotion conferences/training are audience members who meet the purpose of academic promotion conferences/training, and avoid not inviting or inviting medical and health professionals in the field, and having pharmaceutical company employees or other personnel employed by pharmaceutical companies act as audience members.

4. Ensure the authenticity of academic promotion conferences/training: The authenticity of academic promotion conferences/training should be ensured, and the lecturers should attend the conferences/training truthfully and provide lectures.

5. Ensure that the payment method and standards for lecture fees are legal and compliant:

(1) Pharmaceutical companies have signed agreements with relevant medical societies, stipulating that the societies will invite lecturers and pay them for their lectures. Pharmaceutical companies do not participate in the selection of hospitals or doctors (while avoiding designating beneficiaries of lecture fees), nor do they pay lecture fees to lecture doctors. When contacting the aforementioned matters, academic promoters from pharmaceutical companies should be contacted instead of sales personnel.

(2) Establish strict teaching fee standards and attach them as annexes to agreements with relevant medical societies. The standards should pay sponsorship fees/teaching fees based on the level and duration of the teaching doctors, and should be reasonable. Due to the lack of clear cost standards at the legal level, relevant standards can refer to the provisions of the "Management Measures for Training Expenses of Central and State Organs" and the "Management Measures for Travel Expenses of Central and State Organs". At the same time, payment records of lecture fees, activity records, and attendance records of participants should be kept for future review by regulatory authorities to prove the compliance of payment behavior.

6. Medical personnel should follow the approval procedures in accordance with regulations: Pharmaceutical companies, through relevant medical associations, remind medical personnel to complete relevant approval procedures with their medical and health institutions before participating in academic lectures.