Aug. 28, 2017 – Although things have been quiet on the drug promotion and advertising front recently, developing a marketer code of ethics now is a proactive way for the industry to ensure that it has the issues of tamping down fraud and increasing compliance under control, according to an Aug. 15 article written by Coalition for Healthcare Communication Executive Director John Kamp for Medical Marketing & Media.

“Why is the executive committee of the Coalition for Healthcare Communication focused these days on creating a code of ethics and developing additional self-regulatory guidelines?” Kamp remarked in the column. “Because, according to Lee Peeler, head of the respected Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC), this is the perfect time to do so.”

“’You can be proactive and develop guidelines now during this time, or wait a few years for the pendulum to swing back and develop them as a defense against new laws and regulations,’” Peeler told CHC executive committee chair Sharon Callahan and chair-elect Karsten Risch at a recent lunch. “’The issues never go away. They just recede to the background for a while.’”

Kamp stated that Risch, chief medical officer at Havas Health, and Callahan, CEO of Omnicom Health Group’s TBWA\WorldHealth, along with the rest of the CHC’s executive committee, “are looking at all the right places for areas that are ripe for transformation and update,” which include finding new ways “to promote health literacy as a means to promote public health and lower healthcare spending.”

To read the full column, go to: http://www.mmm-online.com/legalregulatory/questions-about-promotion-prompt-marketers-to-develop-code-of-ethics/article/681705/