Pharmaceutical medicine professionals have to face many ethical problems during the
entire life span of new medicines extending from animal studies to broad clinical
practice. The primary aim of the general ethical principles governing research conducted
in humans is to diminish the physical and psychological burdens of the participants
in human drug studies but overlooks many additional social and ethical problems faced
by medicine developers. These arise mainly at the interface connecting the profit-oriented
pharmaceutical industry and the healthcare-centered medical profession cooperating
in medicines development. In 2002, the International Federation of Associations of
Pharmaceutical Physicians and Pharmaceutical Medicine developed the International
Code of Ethical Conduct for Pharmaceutical Physicians for providing ethical advice
for their members to manage the frequently competitive goals characteristic for their
specialty. The ethical framework compiled by the International Federation of Associations
of Pharmaceutical Physicians and Pharmaceutical Medicine serves its members by presenting
morally acceptable or inacceptable behaviors in frequently encountered controversies
arising from competing industrial and healthcare interests in medicines development.
The authors selected this format to encourage reflection and debate for finding optimal
moral conclusions in specific issues. Many recent examples of serious scientific-ethical
misconduct, such as the oxycodone tragedy, the recommendations of unproven useless
occasionally dangerous therapies during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, and
the withdrawal of many papers containing non-reproducible results, contributed to
the increasing loss of trust by the public in science including pharmaceutical medicine.
We are convinced that the ethical guidance developed by the International Federation
of Associations of Pharmaceutical Physicians and Pharmaceutical Medicine will encourage
its members to reflect intensively on optimal ethical behavior in drug development
for strengthening the trust of society in innovative new medicines. Finally, considering
the increasingly active participation of non-medically trained scientists in producing
and applying complex biological medicines, distant monitoring methods coupled together
with artificial intelligence technology in innovative clinical trials, the Ethics
Working Group recommended already in 2017 measures to optimize their smooth cooperation
and underlined their joint ethical responsibilities in guarding the safety and human
dignity of trial participants.
