European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EPHMRA) is a European pharmaceutical market research association established in 1961. EPHMRA aimed to provide the best methods of

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

and share it with the

global community The term world community is used primarily in political and humanitarian contexts to describe an international aggregate of nation states of widely varying types. In most connotations, the term is used to convey meanings attached to consensus or ...

. It also aimed to improve the public’s general healthcare, by doing market research which then ensures the quality and safety of marketed pharmaceutical products. To ensure the research done is according to the

ethical Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied e ...

standard, EPHMRA developed the

Code of Conduct A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the social norm, norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization. Companies' codes of conduct A company code of conduct is a set of rules which is comm ...

and formulated the Ethics Committee. Internally, EPHMRA provided activities including training, and conferences to members regularly, aiming to enhance the professional development of the members and bring insights into the pharmaceutical market research field. Externally, EPHMRA collaborates with other organizations, for example, the European Network of Research Ethics, and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) aiming to improve the pharmaceutical market research methods, which could further enhance the overall safety of consumers.

History

Due to the need for comparable and reliable information related to pharmaceutical product

research Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...

and marketing in the 1960s, various European companies sent their representatives to meet in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

on 5 May 1961. This meeting cause the foundation of the European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EPHMRA), carrying the aim to search for the best possible market research method and share it with the community. Across the decades, EPHMRA has grown into a leading authority on pharmaceutical market research, developing best practices and guidelines for the industry and providing a range of services to its members.

Pharmaceutical companies The pharmaceutical industry is a Medicine, medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or Self-medicate, self-administered b ...

, market research agencies, and other

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

s involved in the pharmaceutical industry are all included in the membership of EPHMRA. Today, the organization continues to have a significant impact on the future of pharmaceutical market research in Europe, providing a platform for industry professionals to discuss, network, and collaborate.

Membership

The European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EPHMRA) has a diverse membership that includes pharmaceutical companies, market research agencies, and other organizations involved in the pharmaceutical industry. Members come from a range of countries throughout Europe and beyond, EPHMRA 2022 Code of Conduct-01

Composition

make up a significant portion of EPHMRA's membership, as these companies are the primary users of market research

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

. They include both large multinational corporations and smaller, specialized firms. Market research agencies are also well-represented among EPHMRA's membership, as they are the primary providers of market research services to the pharmaceutical industry. Other organizations that may be members of EPHMRA include

consulting firm A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad ra ...

s, data providers, and

academic institution An academic institution is an educational institution dedicated to education and research, which grants academic degrees. See also academy and university. Types * Primary schools – (from French ''école primaire'') institutions where childre ...

Criteria

To become a member organisation of EPHMRA, an organization must meet the association's eligibility criteria and adhere to its Code of Conduct. Members responsible to contribute to the association's mission of promoting the highest standards of market research in the

pharmaceutical industry The pharmaceutical industry is a medical industry that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods such as medications and medical devices. Medications are then administered to (or self-administered by) patients for curing ...

. In return, EPHMRA offers various services to its members, including training, networking opportunities, and access to industry data and insights.

Activities

Conferences

The European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EPHMRA) organises

conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

s every year, which allow participants to share about the latest information in the pharmaceutical market research. For examples, the 2023 annual conference would be held during the 27–29 June in the Hallam Conference Centre, where both a main session and a breakout room session would be held to enhance participants engagement.

Market researches

EPHMRA do market researches regularly, aiming to investigate on the latest development in the pharmaceutical market research to the public, and to advocate pharmaceutical market research policies to the government. Recently, research topics related to

digital health Digital health is a discipline that includes digital care programs, technologies with health, healthcare, living, and society to enhance the efficiency of healthcare delivery and to make medicine more personalized and precise. It uses informat ...

, patient engagement and

GDPR The General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), abbreviated GDPR, is a European Union regulation on information privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). The GDPR is an important component of ...

compliance have been investigated. Moreover, EPHMRA would formulates a Global Market Research Report every year, which give insights on the market research methods used in different countries.

Training

Training programs were designed with an aim to providing members with up-to-date skills and resources needed in pharmaceutical market research. Both online and face-to-face training are offered, covering topics including

data privacy Information privacy is the relationship between the collection and dissemination of data, technology, the public expectation of privacy, contextual information norms, and the legal and political issues surrounding them. It is also known as data ...

regulatory compliance In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Compliance has traditionally been explained by reference to deterrence theory, according to which punishing a behavior will decrease the viol ...

, and ethics. EPHMRA also collaborated with other organizations, for example, the Pharmaceutical Market Research Group to offer a joint

certification Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestatio ...

program. This is a type of program that give credits to individual with high performance, letting them better compete in the job market.

Awards

Awards were given to members to recognize their contributions to the pharmaceutical market research industry. The types of awards includes: # The EPHMRA President’s Award for Contribution to Healthcare Market Research – an award started in 2001 Gs ephmra2compiled

during the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

Conference # The Jack Hayhurst Award – an award given to the writer of the best paper during the conferences, by

voting Voting is the process of choosing officials or policies by casting a ballot, a document used by people to formally express their preferences. Republics and representative democracies are governments where the population chooses representative ...

of participants # The MR Excellence Award – an award presented to members, by criteria of business insight,

leadership Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

, and

innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or service (economics), services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a n ...

# The Young Professional Conference Grants

Management

Board of Directors

The European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EPHMRA) is led by a

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

. The board is responsible to give direction to the organization’s future objectives and to ensure that EPHMRA fulfills its goal in market research effectively. Members of the board for 2022-2023 are as follows:

Committees

EPHMRA has committees including the Classification Committee, New Form Code Committee, Data and Science Committee and Ethics Committee. The committees serve to work as different functions, including to formulate the Code of Conduct, the New Form Code System and other pharmaceutical classification system, and to maintain the ethical standard in research.

Classification Committee

The Classification Committee is responsible to develop and update the Anatomical Classification System and the Therapeutic Classification System. The classification system is used to provide a standardized framework in categorizing pharmaceutical products based on their

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and therapeutical categories, which then enables researchers compare the data among different pharmaceutical products effectively during market researches.

New Form Codes Committee

The New Form Codes Committee is responsible to develop and update the New Form Code system, which is a system used to classify pharmaceutical products according to their

dosage form Dosage forms (also called unit doses) are pharmaceutical drug products presented in a specific form for use. They contain a mixture of active ingredients and inactive components ( excipients), configured in a particular way (such as a capsule she ...

s, allowing researchers to effectively compare different pharmaceutical products during market researches. Eurec

Data and Science Committee

The Data and Science Committee is responsible to advocate the use of innovative

data analysis Data analysis is the process of inspecting, Data cleansing, cleansing, Data transformation, transforming, and Data modeling, modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Da ...

. To achieve this, the Committee has to be aware of emerging trends and technologies in data analysis and see if the new technologies could be applied in pharmaceutical market research. Moreover, the committee is responsible to provide data analysis trainings to members.

Ethics Committee

The Ethics Committee aims to promote ethical standards in pharmaceutical market research. The Committee is responsible to update the Code of Conduct, which is guides the ethical consideration in market research. The committee also works with the European Network of Research Ethics, which is a network of European ethical organisation, to discuss new ways to promote research ethics.

Controversies

There are complaints that The European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EPHMRA)’s Anatomical Classification System is not accurate enough, since it over-simplifies certain therapeutic conditions. Moreover, there are concerns about

privacy Privacy (, ) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves, and thereby express themselves selectively. The domain of privacy partially overlaps with security, which can include the concepts of a ...

during data collection and analysis in the market research carried out by the organization. It is therefore argued that there may be a need to supervise the EPHMRA to ensure its research are transparent and follows ethical standard and to prevent potential

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

from occur.Liu, J. J., Bell, C. M., & Matelski, J. J. (2016). Transparency and integrity in medical research. The Lancet, 387(10026), 2534-2535 In response to this, EPHMRA developed and enforced the Code of Conduct to set up ethical guidelines and work with other ethical bodies to ensure their market goes by ethical standard

References

{{Reflist Market research organizations Pharmacy organizations Phar