The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) is the

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific Industry (economics), industry. An industry tra ...

for over 120 companies in the UK producing prescription medicines for humans, founded in 1891.Healthcare Distribution Association: Our History
HDA UK (Accessed Jan 2020) It is the British equivalent of America's

PhRMA Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA, pronounced ), formerly known as the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, is a trade group representing companies in the pharmaceutical industry in the United States. Founded in 195 ...

; however, the member companies research, develop, manufacture and supply 80% of the medicines prescribed through the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

History

The organisation was founded in London in 1891 and originally known as the "Drug Club". It was re-named the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry in 1948. A rival institution to represent wholesalers, the "Northern Wholesale Druggists' Association", was formed in 1902 and lasted until 1966.

Management and offices

A board of management of members oversee the ABPI. The Board is made up of individuals who are elected by members to represent the industry and up to five people who are co-opted by the Board. Elections commence every January for elected seats to ensure that the Board is fully representative and has access to the broadest range of skills and expertise possible. The ABPI's head office is in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

with three regional offices in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Membership

Membership of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is not open to individuals, only companies. Members fall into three categories: * Full members who hold

marketing authorisation Marketing authorisation is the process of reviewing and assessing the evidence to support a medicinal product, such as a drug, in relation to its marketing, finalised by granting of a licence to be sold. This process is performed within a legal fr ...

for manufacture or supply of a

prescription medicine A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a pharmaceutical drug that legally requires a medical prescription to be dispensed. In contrast, over-the-counter drugs can be obtained without a prescription. The rea ...

for human use and who undertake business in the UK * Research affiliate members who carry out business in the UK and are involved in research and/or development of medicines for human use but do not have a UK sales operation, for example

contract research organisation In the life sciences, a contract research organization (CRO) is a company that provides support to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries in the form of research services outsourced on a contract basis. A CRO may provide ...

s or

contract manufacturing organization A contract manufacturing organization (CMO), more recently referred to (and more commonly used now) as a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) to avoid the acronym confusion of Chief Medical Officer or Clinical Monitoring Organ ...

s * General affiliate members who operate in the UK, have a business interest in the industry and will typically provide products or services to the industry, although not producing prescription medicines, for example law firms

Functions

The ABPI represents the views of the pharmaceutical industry to government and decision makers in the UK, i.e. is a

lobbying organization In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

. The organisation has five departments; Economic, Health and Commercial Policy; Research, Medical and Innovation; Corporate Affairs and Devolved Nations; Legal and Membership Services. The Research, Medical and Innovation department oversees complimentary resources for schools in UK to promote links between school science subjects and their applications in industrial research. The department also runs a careers website. The association sponsors booklets on a range of conditions, aimed at patients, carers and healthcare professionals.

The ABPI Code of Practice

Th
ABPI Code of Practice
covers the promotion of medicines for prescribing to health professionals and administrative staff as well as the provision of information to the public about prescription only medicines in the UK. The Code sets standards for the promotion of medicines to health professionals and other relevant decision makers in the UK. It also covers interactions between the industry and health professionals. The ABPI Code sets standards relating to the provision of information about prescription-only medicines to the public and patients, and pharmaceutical companies’ relationships with patient organisations. The ABPI Code does not cover the promotion of over-the-counter medicines to the public. All ABPI member companies are obliged to comply with both the spirit and letter of the Code. The ABPI Code is a self-regulatory code, first established by the ABPI in 1958 and undergoes revisions at least every two years. It is regularly updated and reviewed in consultation with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the British Medical Association (BMA), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). It is administered by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA).ABPI Code of Practice
ABPI, (Accessed Jan 2020)

Criticism

Ben Goldacre Ben Michael Goldacre (born 20 May 1974) is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford ...

criticised the pharmaceutical industry in his 2012 book ''

Bad Pharma ''Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients'' is a book by the British physician and academic Ben Goldacre about the pharmaceutical industry, its relationship with the medical profession, and the extent to which it control ...

'' as testing itself what it manufactures in "poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques that are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments"."Dr Ben Goldacre vs the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry"
The ABPI responds to Ben Goldacre's book Bad Pharma.''New Statesman'', 19 October 2012. accessed 4 July 2017 The ABPI responded that medicines were "tested against the most effective comparator where possible unless there is no current standard of care." Regarding "results that companies don't like,

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

they are perfectly entitled to hide .from doctors and patients ... academic papers, which everyone thinks of as objective, are often covertly planned and written by people who work directly for the companies, without disclosure." the ABPI responded that it did "... not seek to "hide" trial data" and was recognising there was "still work to be done in ensuring the publication of negative trial data within journals, and in ensuring greater transparency all round within the industry".

References

External links

Association for the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) Website

Profile of ABPI on Corporate Watch Website
;Video clips
ABPI YouTube channel
{{Authority control Pharmacy organisations in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1891 Pharmaceutical industry trade groups 1891 establishments in the United Kingdom Life sciences industry