Pharmaceutical Ethic Codes: How to draft a Pharmaceutical Ethic Codes without inhibiting your business

Tri Junanto Wicaksono, Legal & GA Manager, PT. Amerta Indah Otsuka

Pharmaceutical Industry is very risky business, not only that the company needs to grow its profit but it must show to the people that they contribute to the human health without taking any advantage from the people illness and also making sure that the medicines will not having any bad side effect to the human body. So, for running its business the Pharmaceutical Company should establish Compliance & Ethic Code Program to make sure that the Production Department must maintain the Good Manufacturing Practices and the Sales Department shall always convince the physician to prescribe the products without breaching any medical ethic. But sometimes the Compliance and Ethic Code Program are inhibiting the pharmaceuticals business growth because some of the clauses prohibit some actions while in some areas it is a common business practices. For example, some countries prohibit commercial advertising in television or public newspaper for Ethical Products. In connection with above-mentioned purposes, it’s an In-house legal counsel duty to maintain the Compliance and Ethic Code Program and compromise with the business practices at the same time. It’s our jobs to determine that the corporate actions by employees should be complying with the prevailing laws and regulation. I want to bring up a phrase “To be idealist is good choice but to be compromise it’s a better choice”, it means that in order to survive in the Pharmaceutical Company, in-house legal should be in the position of compromise status. So when we draft a Compliance and Ethic Code, we must make sure that the draft still comply with local regulation and at same times its not eliminate the ability of the Pharmaceutical Company and its employees in competing with its competitors.