www.ijbcp.com International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology | March-April 2016 | Vol 5 | Issue 2 Page 263 IJBCP International Journal of Basic & Clinical Pharmacology Print ISSN: 2319-2003 | Online ISSN: 2279-0780 Research Article Understanding the degree of awareness among medical professionals regarding the ethics of pharmaceutical marketing activities in context of revised medical council of India code of ethics Renuka H. Munshi 1 , Kanchan R. Singh 2 *, Astha D. Thakkar 3 INTRODUCTION As per the International code of medical ethics of the world medical association (1949), “a doctor must always maintain the highest standards of professional conduct and must practice his profession uninfluenced by motives of profit”. 1 The medical council of India (MCI) too has listed regulations relating to the professional conduct, etiquette and ethics for registered medical practitioners as per the Indian medical council act, 1956 (102 of 1956), the main purpose of which is that a physician shall uphold the dignity and honour of his profession and his prime objective would be to render service to humanity; reward or financial gain should be a subordinate consideration. 2 The important difference between the ordinary consumer goods & the sale of prescription drugs is that the sale of drugs does not take place directly between the producer and the consumer. In this case, the process is mediated by the physician who prescribes a particular medication. Pharmaceutical sales practices often involve ways to influence physician‟s recognition of the drug so that it remains on his/her top of mind. 3 The pharmaceutical industry spends a significant amount of resources on marketing its products. According to one estimate, the top 50 Indian pharmaceutical companies spend 290% to 1,025% more on marketing than on research and development. 4 Such a high rigor of marketing activities may spark a conflict of interest (COI) in the mind of the physician who will be treating his/her patients by prescribing the drugs. The physician might be compelled ABSTRACT Background: Pharmaceutical marketing activities are regarded as ethically challenging by most medical professionals. This study was planned to understand the extent of the interaction of pharmaceutical companies with healthcare providers & to determine the level of awareness about the „Medical Council of India (MCI) Code of Ethics‟. Methods: A questionnaire based survey was conducted among 100 consultants and residents. The questionnaire mainly dealt with ethical issues about accepting free gifts, medicines and other sponsorships from pharmaceutical representatives, interactions and expectations from representatives of pharmaceutical companies by doctors and ascertaining among them the level of awareness about the MCI‟s code of ethics. Results: 59.4% residents and 58.8% consultants do not consider small gifts (stationery/books/drug samples) as ethically problematic. 88% residents and 85% consultants felt that offers should be limited. 72% of consultants were aware of the revised MCI code of ethics as compared to 28% of residents. Conclusions: Most physicians do maintain a code of ethics with regards to accepting gifts and they felt that inexpensive gifts do not influence clinical judgment. Consultants were of the view that amended MCI code of ethics would not affect their clinical practice significantly. Keywords: Codes of ethics, Medical workforce, Pharmaceutical marketing, Gifts DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2319-2003.ijbcp20160653 1 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, 2 Department of Pharmacology, 3 Undergraduate student, Topiwala National Medical College & BYL Nair Ch. Hospital, Mumbai-400008, Maharashtra, India Received: 12 February 2016 Revised: 22 February 2016 Accepted: 23 February 2016 *Correspondence to: Dr. Kanchan Rao Singh, Email: drkanchan21@ gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open- access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non- commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.