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. 2023 Mar 3;19(1):14.
doi: 10.1186/s12992-022-00902-9.

International comparison of pharmaceutical industry payment disclosures in the UK and Japan: implications for self-regulation, public regulation, and transparency

Piotr Ozieranski  1 , Hiroaki Saito  2 , Emily Rickard  3 , Shai Mulinari  4 , Akihiko Ozaki  5
Affiliations

International comparison of pharmaceutical industry payment disclosures in the UK and Japan: implications for self-regulation, public regulation, and transparency

Piotr Ozieranski et al. Global Health. .

Abstract

Background: Self-regulation of payment disclosure by pharmaceutical industry trade groups is a major global approach to increasing transparency of financial relationships between drug companies and healthcare professionals and organisations. Nevertheless, little is known about the relative strengths and weaknesses of self-regulation across countries, especially beyond Europe. To address this gap in research and stimulate international policy learning, we compare the UK and Japan, the likely strongest cases of self-regulation of payment disclosure in Europe and Asia, across three dimensions of transparency: disclosure rules, practices, and data.

Results: The UK and Japanese self-regulation of payment disclosure had shared as well unique strengths and weaknesses. The UK and Japanese pharmaceutical industry trade groups declared transparency as the primary goal of payment disclosure, without, however, explaining the link between the two. The rules of payment disclosure in each country provided more insight into some payments but not others. Both trade groups did not reveal the recipients of certain payments by default, and the UK trade group also made the disclosure of some payments conditional on recipient consent. Drug company disclosure practices were more transparent in the UK, allowing for greater availability and accessibility of payment data and insight into underreporting or misreporting of payments by companies. Nevertheless, the share of payments made to named recipients was three times higher in Japan than in the UK, indicating higher transparency of disclosure data.

Conclusions: The UK and Japan performed differently across the three dimensions of transparency, suggesting that any comprehensive analysis of self-regulation of payment disclosure must triangulate analysis of disclosure rules, practices, and data. We found limited evidence to support key claims regarding the strengths of self-regulation, while often finding it inferior to public regulation of payment disclosure. We suggest how the self-regulation of payment disclosure in each country can be enhanced and, in the long run, replaced by public regulation to strengthen the industry's accountability to the public.

Keywords: Comparative case study; Financial conflicts of interest; Payment disclosure; Pharmaceutical industry; Research and development; Self-regulation; Transparency.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr Saito received personal fees from TAIHO Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd outside the scope of the submitted work. Dr Ozaki received personal fees from Medical Network Systems outside the scope of the submitted work. Dr. Ozieranski’s former PhD student was supported by a grant from Sigma Pharmaceuticals, a UK pharmacy wholesaler and distributor (not a pharmaceutical company). The PhD work funded by Sigma Pharmaceuticals is unrelated to the subject of this paper. Dr Mulinari’s partner is employed by ICON, a global Contract Research Organization whose customers include many pharmaceutical companies. Ms Rickard reports no conflicting interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Relationships between disclosure rules, practices, and data in pharmaceutical industry self-regulation in the UK and Japan
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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