Indian reps strike over pharma’s bad ethics

Pharma reps in India have gone on strike to highlight what they see as the corrupt nature of the pharma industry.

In an extraordinary move, local media reports say that around 150,000 reps stopped work yesterday to call for stricter sales and marketing rules to be imposed on the industry, and for stronger enforcement when rules are broken.

The Federation of Medical Representatives Association of India (FMRAI) union, which called for the strike, said it wants the government must take "stringent action against pharma corporate corruption".

FMRAI's Ramesh Sundar, who is the Tamil Nadu unit's general secretary, told Pharmabiz that his union has been fighting against unethical marketing and corporate corruption in the area of sales promotion by pharma companies for more than a decade.

The union says this has come to a head after recent industry reforms in India have focused on pharma reps, rather than on their employers. This has led to reps have been barred from hospitals, making it increasingly difficult for them to do their job.

The Union said this has been done: "To divert attention from the real perpetrators of medicine-related corruption and crime" - i.e., the senior executives of the companies.

It adds that the reforms added a new code of ethics to be upheld by pharma, but said this was 'useless' because it was voluntary, not mandatory.

It is now demanding a government investigation of the "unfair marketing and trade practices of drug companies".