Seven Drugmakers Slapped for Breaking UK Trade Group’s Code

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry is publicly naming seven pharmaceutical companies in public advertisements for certain marketing or business practices that it says brought discredit upon the industry.

The UK trade group says LEO Pharma, Norgine, Daiichi-Sankyo, Novartis, Sanofi, Consilient and Pharmasure all violated its code of practice for prescription medicines.

For example, a Novartis representative “failed to maintain high standards” in discussions with two clinicians about the recommendation for use of the company’s metastatic breast cancer drug Piqray (alpelisib) before the medicine had received a marketing authorization.

And Sanofi drew fire for a product website that offered “inaccurate information about and out-of-date prescribing information” for Dupixent (dupilumab), which is used to treat eczema, asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis.