The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents research-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Our members develop and market new medicines to enable patients to live longer and healthier lives.

Ethical relationships with healthcare professionals are critical to our mission of helping patients by developing and marketing new medicines. An important part of achieving this mission is ensuring that healthcare professionals have the latest, most accurate information available regarding prescription medicines, which play an ever-increasing role in patient health care. This document focuses on our interactions with health care professionals that relate to the marketing of our products.

Appropriate marketing of medicines ensures that patients have access to the products they need and that the products are used correctly for maximum patient benefit. Our relationships with healthcare professionals are critical to achieving these goals because they enable us to:

• inform healthcare professionals about the benefits and risks of our products to help advance appropriate patient use,
• provide scientific and educational information,
• support medical research and education, and
• obtain feedback and advice about our products through consultation with medical experts.

In interacting with the medical community, we are committed to following the highest ethical standards as well as all legal requirements. We are also concerned that our interactions with health care professionals not be perceived as inappropriate by patients or the public at large. This Code is to reinforce our intention that our interactions with health care professionals are professional exchanges designed to benefit patients and to enhance the practice of medicine. The Code is based on the principle that a healthcare professional’s care of patients should be based, and should be perceived as being based, solely on each patient’s medical needs and the healthcare professional’s medical knowledge and experience.

Therefore, PhRMA adopted this updated and enhanced voluntary code on relationships with U.S. health care professionals. PhRMA member companies’ relationships with clinical investigators and other individuals and entities as they relate to the clinical research process are addressed in the PhRMA Principles on Conduct of Clinical Trials and Communication of Clinical Trial Results.

As a proud member of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), the PhRMA Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals embodies the principles of the IFPMA Code and we strongly endorse the Ethos of trust that serves as the foundation for the IFPMA Code and industry’s interactions with the health care community.

The PhRMA Code on Interactions with Health Care Professionals was last updated in August 2021.

• Read the PhRMA Code (effective January 1, 2022)
• Statement Regarding 2021 Revisions to the PhRMA Code
• Pharmaceutical Marketing in Perspective
• Joint Guidance on Virtual and Hybrid International Medical Congresses