Peak Drug Industry Body Sin Bins Roche [1]
Submitted by Bob Burton [2] on
The Swiss drug company Roche [3] has been suspended from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry [4] (ABPI) after adverse findings over its promotion of the weight-loss drug Xenical [5]. The Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority [6], the body created by ABPI to handle complaints over its self-regulatory code of conduct, found [7] that an agreement by Roche to invest £55,000 in a weight loss clinic that would prescribe the company's drug "brought discredit upon, and reduced confidence in, the pharmaceutical industry [8]." The authority also found that by selling Xenical to the clinic owner, who posed as a pharmacist, Roche "had sold a prescription only medicine to a member of the public." The complaint was brought by Ryta Kuzel, the former head of UK regulatory affairs for Roche, who argues [9] that she was fired because the company feared she would blow the whistle on the Xenical scandal.