Merck & Co's Banyu unit warned about paying Japanese doctors for attending conferences

Japanese drugmaker Banyu, a wholly-owned subsidiary of US drugs giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK), has been warned about making payments of around 10 million yen ($12 0,000) to 325 doctors who attended medical seminars organized by the company with regard to its diabetes drug Januvia (sitagliptin), by the Kotorikyo, Japan’s Fair Trade Council of the Ethical Pharmaceuticals Drugs Marketing Industry.

Payments of 30,000 yen were made to the doctors for travel costs to 21 locations across the country from January 27 to July 15, and Banyu considered this amount to be a “fee for commissioned work,” which the firm believed was approved by the code competition rules, because it had presented a written request to each participant to cooperate as a coordinator or chairperson in lecture meetings the company would organize in the future and because each had accepted the request in writing, reports Pharma Japan.

However, the Kotorikyo said the payments cannot be regarded as a fee because the company had not specified when, where and how such lectures would be held. It argued that they were serious violations of the Fair Competition Code. The agency’s warning is seen as a severe measure, and only a few such actions have been issued in the past 10 years, says Pharma Japan.