The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has published a new database, Disclosure UK, detailing payments in kind from the pharmaceutical industry to UK health professionals and organisations.
Implications | According to the ABPI's new public-access transparency database, Disclosure UK, the pharmaceutical industry's payments or benefits in kind to health professionals and organisations in the UK totalled GBP340.3 million (USD455.7million) in 2015. |
Outlook | Publication of payment-in-kind data is now an annual requirement of the ABPI's Code of Practice for the UK pharmaceutical industry and coincides with a Europe-wide transparency initiative this year, with 33 countries recently publishing payment data of this type. |
On 30 June 2016, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) released a new transparency database, Disclosure UK. Open to public access, this shows payments or benefits in kind made by United Kingdom (UK) pharmaceutical companies to health professionals (including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists) and healthcare organisations in the UK. The Disclosure UK database is available for search and download here.
The database contains payment data from 109 UK companies (54 of which are ABPI members). An estimated 70% of healthcare professional recipients have given consent for payment information to be disclosed on a named basis.
The data overall show that in 2015, the pharma industry spent GBP340.3 million (USD455.7 million) on collaborations with health professionals and organisations, of which GBP229.3 million (67%) was directly related to research and development (R&D) of new drugs. Non-R&D payments (GBP111 million, 33%) were grouped as follows:
• Service and consultancy fees and associated expenses – GBP46 million or 13%
• Registration fees and associated travel and accommodation – GBP14.8 million or 4.3%
• Joint projects – GBP3.3 million or 1%
• Contribution to event costs – GBP31.4 million or 9.2%
• Donations and grants – GBP30.3 million or 8.9%
The average amount each company invested was about GBP3.1 million, with 84% reporting total investments of less than GBP5 million. Companies spending more than GBP5 million allocated an average of 71% to research-related activities. An estimated average of GBP1,550 was spent per healthcare professional, and around GBP9,506 per organisation. Recipients of payments may be searched on the database by name, organisation, or professional address.
Publication of these data is now an annual requirement of the ABPI's Code of Practice for the UK pharmaceutical industry. All published data on Disclosure UK will be accessible on the central database for three years.
Outlook and implications
The ABPI stresses in its press release that these payments reflect a small proportion of pharmaceutical industry investment into scientific research, and that pharma companies currently invest more money into R&D than any other UK industry sector. According to ABPI figures, in 2014, the pharmaceutical industry invested GBP3.9 billion into drug development.
According to Pharma Times, in a recent poll of over 500 UK healthcare workers, 87% supported documentation of payments from pharma companies to named healthcare professionals, with 64% backing public disclosure. However, 26% felt disclosure of payments to named professionals was unnecessary, citing concerns this could discourage innovation and damage relationships with pharma companies.
ABPI chief executive Mike Thompson said, "This is a milestone moment for transparency in our industry and for the vital partnerships we have with health professionals and organisations across the UK." He also stressed the public-interest benefit of sharing as much information of this type as possible and the ABPI's ongoing commitment to transparency.
This development is in line with a Europe-wide transparency initiative, under which 33 countries have released details of payments and benefits in kind this year, coinciding with the introduction of a new voluntary European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) disclosure code (see Europe: 22 June 2016: Deadline approaches for EFPIA data disclosure on transfer of value payments).