Almirall Prodesfarma

Last updated: 7 February 2007

What they say

• Almirall states that it is committed to promoting medicines in accordance with self-regulation standards.
  
• The company has a code of ethics that includes ethical standards in advertising, in line with the codes of the EFPIA and the Spanish industry association Farmindustria.[1] The code focusses on interactions with healthcare professionals and other third parties[2] and includes ethical standards in advertising.[3]
  
• A confidential reporting structure exists for reporting code violations.

What's the problem?

• No public information was found for Almirall on competition policies. They are internal documents only.
  
• Neither the EFPIA Code of Practice of Farmindustria code explicitly address ethical practice for disease awareness campaigns (DACs) and interaction with patient organisations.
  
• Company standards regarding  the conduct of medical sales representatives, and gifts and hospitality to health professionals could not be confirmed as the company's code of ethics is not publicly available.
  
• Details on code violations were not provided to researchers.

[1] Almirall Prodesfarma, Brochure, p. 42.

[2] GloriaMaltas, Almirall Prodesfarma, 21 Dec 2005.

[3] Almirall Brochure, p. 42.