Ethical advertising of medicines in Philippines

Ethical interactions help ensure that medical decisions are made in the best interests of patients. To achieve this, the Mexico City Declaration for Voluntary Codes of Business Ethics in the Biopharmaceutical Sector enumerated principles that should guide relationships between the pharmaceutical sector and the health care community.

The Mexico City Declaration, endorsed by Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministers, stated that ethical interactions "with health care professionals, government officials, patients, and other stakeholders are critical to the mission of pharmaceutical sector" to help save lives by developing and making medicines available, notes a posting on the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines (PHAP) web site.

In fact, ethical interactions provide a platform for health care professionals to have access to information they need. At the same time, patients ultimately benefit from these interactions as they are able to "access the medicines they need and that medicines are prescribed and used in a manner that provides the maximum health care benefit" to them.