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LONDON, June 2 (Reuters) - The global pharmaceuticalsindustry remains open to corruption abuse, despite a raft ofscandals in recent years, with both companies and governmentsfailing to tackle the issue adequately, according toTransparency International.
The anti-corruption advocacy group said on Thursday therewere dangerous loopholes across the drug supply chain, from lackof publicly available research data to underhand marketingpractices to poor enforcement of manufacturing standards.
"It is shocking that despite scandal after scandal involvingpharma companies, still policy makers simply are not takingseriously the corrosive effect of corruption," Sophie Peresson,its head of pharmaceuticals and healthcare, said. "The red flagsare being ignored."
Drugmakers are certainly no strangers to corruption claims.
Big Pharma has forked out billions of dollars to settlescandals involving improper promotion of drugs in the UnitedStates and, more recently, bribes paid to foreign doctors haveemerged as another area of malpractice.
GlaxoSmithKline, for example, paid a record fine ofnearly $500 million in 2014 for bribery in China and manycompanies face investigation under the U.S. Foreign CorruptPractices Act.
At the beginning of 2016, Transparency International saidone in 10 corruption investigations by U.S. authorities involvedpharmaceutical companies, significantly more than for thebanking sector.
The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries andAssociations agreed good governance was vital but it criticisedthe report for failing to mention a host of positiveindustry-led initiatives in areas such as financialtransparency, data sharing and the fight against falsifiedmedicines. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; editing by Adrian Croft)
