New Delhi: In a move to review the existing framework for regulating unethical pharmaceutical marketing practices and recommend measures to strengthen its enforcement, the Centre Friday set up a three-member committee led by NITI Aayog member M. Srinivas.
The other members of the committee include former Union health secretary Preeti Sudan and Medanta Hospital chairman and managing director Dr Naresh Trehan.
Unethical pharmaceutical marketing practices include offering gifts, hospitality and sponsored travel to doctors to influence their prescribing decisions, as well as providing other incentives that could compromise independent medical judgment.
The committee has been asked to submit its recommendations to the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) within two months of its first meeting, after consulting stakeholders.
“The committee will undertake a comprehensive examination of issues relating to unethical pharmaceutical marketing practices and make recommendations,” the DoP said in a press release Friday.
The DoP added that the committee will assess the effectiveness of existing monitoring, oversight and enforcement mechanisms and suggest measures to improve transparency, accountability and compliance. It will also examine whether the current framework needs to be strengthened through regulatory, statutory or other legal measures.
The review comes amid a long-running debate over whether the existing rules are sufficient to prevent pharmaceutical companies from using gifts, hospitality and sponsored travel to influence doctors’ prescribing decisions.
The Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024, which is currently in operation, is a voluntary, industry-led code that governs promotional activities by drug companies and their interactions with healthcare professionals. While it lays down rules for such interactions, it does not provide a specific statutory mechanism to penalise companies for violations. UCPMP superseded the 2015 code.
The issue is also before the Supreme Court in a case filed in 2021 by the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India (FMRAI). The federation has sought a legally enforceable framework to regulate pharmaceutical marketing practices, arguing that a voluntary code is inadequate to curb activities that could influence doctors’ prescribing decisions.
Santanu Mitra, a representative of FMRAI, had earlier told ThePrint that the federation was seeking a statutory framework to address unethical pharmaceutical marketing.
In August 2026, the Centre told the Supreme Court that the existing framework could be strengthened through better disclosures, greater transparency and improved complaint handling, rather than necessarily introducing a separate statutory mechanism.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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