These guidelines of ethics in dealing with the pharmaceutical industry should be a valuable addition to the members of the Indian Psychiatric Society and will enhance their knowledge and confidence in their ethical interactions with the pharmaceutical industry. In recent times, medical and pharmaceutical relationship has been viewed with greater suspicion than with anything else. While the pharmaceutical industry has the expertise in fields of marketing and management, the practitioners are mostly dependent on their knowledge in dealing and making decisions in their interactions with the industry. Due to differential capacity to bear the financial cost among the professionals, most of these activities have to be dependent a lot on pharmaceutical funding. Moreover, the need for CME credits for the renewal of registrations puts a huge financial burden on medical practitioners. Although Central Government Institutions provide some funding for research, paper presentations, and continuing medical education, it is largely lacking for most of the State Government and private institutions. With the rapid growth and advancement in the field of medical science, attending educational workshops and continuing medical education is a necessity of current times.
This difference in the area of interest creates a potential scope for conflict. The promotions in the pharmaceutical industries are almost entirely focused and concentrated on the doctors (and sometimes on patients). While both doctors and industry have a number of similar interests such as encouragement and monitoring of responsible and effective use of drugs and techniques and advancement in fields of research, the basic difference lies in the fact that the primary interest of doctors is patient care and that of industry is commercial outcomes. Within the specialty, opinions differ aplenty, ranging from the belief that the associated risks of relationship are minimal to the strong conviction and concern about the compromises of such relationships. Although the relationship between the medical specialists and pharmaceutical industry is considered symbiotic but are also perceived as an unholy alliance by some in community. The relationship between medical practitioners and pharmaceutical industry is complicated as they serve the interests that are both overlapping and conflicting.