Proving Compliance With the New PhRMA Code

What is the new PhRMA Code you might be asking?

Well first of all PhRMA stands for "The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America". This entity is a trade organization that represents research based pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. You can see more information about them at http://www.phrma.org

Biotechnology

The PhRMA has recently published a "Code On Interactions with Healthcare Professionals" which addresses how pharma and biotech companies, and their field sales representatives can "market" to doctors and other healthcare professionals.

Proving Compliance With the New PhRMA Code

This has been a topic of much controversy in the past. It is now, however, thanks to the work of the PhRMA, very clear what is permissible and what is not permissible.

As of January 1, 2009, field sales representatives and their companies will need to show adherence to the new PhRMA code. If they do not they will risk significant reputational risk and also possibly financial risk. Perhaps even worse might be the risk of increased regulation. In today's environment, the desire and call for increased regulation of industry and commerce is accelerating and is unlikely to slow down given that the Democrats now control the US political landscape.

Companies will need to look for tools and processes to facilitate and prove adherence to the code. This comes at a time when budgets are tight and as such technology will need to be the leveraged to achieve "proven" compliance.

There is technology already available that can be easily and quickly (we are less than 2 months away from the introduction of the new code) employed.

One example is the service offered by OrderCorner, a Houston based company operating nationwide. OrderCorner today provides a web based platform that offers tools to the pharmaceutical industry ( and other corporate clients) for the management of the food ordered by field sales representatives as part of informational presentations.

As it relates to informational presentations, the code says that meals are allowed but that:
1. The meal needs to be modest as judged by local standards
2. The meal needs to be served in the doctors office or in a hospital setting
3. The meals need to be occasional in nature
4. The meals need to be served only to healthcare professionals. Spouses and guests are not permissible.

Imagine a scenario in which you have 6000 field sales representatives, all ordering from their favorite restaurants and caterers, and how you would prove that the meals ordered meet the criteria laid out above. Sure, it could be done but what would be the investment and incremental workload required from the sales rep, systems, accounting, and compliance, to achieve this.

Instead consider an outsourced solution that combines the best of everything; nationwide restaurant/caterer contacts, order management system, extensive compliance reporting and above all the ability to capture all the data to prove compliance with the code with no upfront investment.

Lastly and not least, this topic could, I believe, make or break careers. One aspect of the new code is that adherence has been elevated to the C Suite. The CEO and the Chief Compliance Officer of the company are required to sign off on an annual certification if they have publicly announced their commitment to the code.

This is no longer an irritating issue that resides with sales management or sales operations or the compliance department. The new code has vaulted this topic to the most senior levels within the organization and failure to act will surely not go down well by either the public, the industry, or internal senior management.

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OrderCorner is a national online corporate food management platform with a "virtual food court" for corporate clients who order food on a frequent basis. We can partner with you to reengineer or implement a standardized food management process which would do the following:

1) Enable you to know your total food spend

2) Manage and track your food spend budget

3) Know how your sales representatives are spending their budgets

4) Provide you with management reporting for compliance, audit or budget purposes

5) Improve the sales productivity of your field representatives

For more information please contact us. Contact details can be found at http://www.ordercorner.com/ordercorner/contact.do

or call (609 924 9431) or email jbunn@ordercorner.com