In short
The International Medical Device Industry Compliance Conference on 9-11 May at Stockholm’s Sheraton Hotel, and European medtech industry body Eucomed has helpfully drawn the attention of industry to the event with this succinct assessment.
Background
In case you’re wondering what compliance means, it’s admittedly a slightly misleading word, but essentially refers to a combination of ethical and legal rules guiding our industry practices, and yes, measures to ensure we as an industry comply with the rules. It’s important stuff then, and this event can rightly claim to have been at the heart of codes of practice, guidelines and indeed laws governing behaviour today.
The conference’s own website, which can be found here, states:
“The conference was designed by industry leaders to not only educate but also stimulate interactive, best practices discussion on timely global compliance challenges. This conference brings together device industry regulators, compliance professionals, legal officers, both small and large medical technology manufacturers from across the globe, as well as outside counsel and consultants to this fast growing, dynamic and global industry.”
The panoply of presenters includes representatives of medtech giants such as Biomet as well as US government officials and legal counsels.
What did compliance ever do for us?
In case you need reminding of a few areas where compliance measures have been brought to bear in recent years, the Eucomed article is helpful:
- In 2010 Kate Hamann of the US Department of Justice highlighted industry risks with regards to business relationships with third parties, explaining that companies will be held liable under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for the activities of their distributors. (Eucomed and AdvaMed have subsequently draft guidance to assist companies with compliance issues relating to their Third-Party Sales and Marketing Intermediary relationships).
- Discussions at previous editions on the need for ethical behaviour in conference sponsorships, also played a role in the conception of the Ethical MedTech Conference Vetting System, which recently launched in a pilot phase and which we’ve covered before, here.
Many other topics are on the agenda including the concepts of “Sunshine”, “Transparency” and the requirements for companies to disclose publicly payments made to individual Healthcare Professionals, which Eucomed reports is slowly but surely making its way through Europe and other parts of the world.
In closing its article, Eucomed states that it, together with US industry body AdvaMed has worked hard to make this conference the best yet, with more interaction (through the conference smartphone app) and a stronger focus on stakeholder engagement. It claims to have already surpassed previous registration numbers, with an unprecedented number of international attendees from the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia attending to hear from CEOs and leaders in compliance.
Source: Eucomed, Advamed
published: May 2, 2012 in: Congresses and Meetings, News