Nature Medicine
March 2013, Volume 19 No 3 pp247-377
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v19/n3/index.html

Opinion
Bioethical accreditation or rating needed to restore trust in pharma
Jennifer E. Miller
Nature Medicine 19, 261 (2013)  doi:10.1038/nm0313-261
Published online – 06 March 2013

After years of decline in the public eye, drug companies should implement a bioethics accreditation or rating program to help appropriately restore the industry’s good name and improve its effectiveness in advancing global health and new treatments.

Extract
The pharmaceutical industry was once among the most admired industries on the planet. Today, it is heavily criticized and distrusted, with only 12% of people in the US believing that drug companies are generally honest and ethical, according to a Harris poll published late last year. Countless experts have raised this problem before, and drug companies have attempted numerous remedial strategies to address bioethical concerns and repair trust deficits.    Nonetheless, the mistrust persists, arguably weakening the effectiveness of these important institutions. Is there something new that companies can do to demonstrate the quality of their processes and genuinely earn back our trust? I believe there is.

The drug industry should voluntarily implement a bioethics accreditation, certification or rating system to help companies assess and improve the quality of their services and organizational processes. Such a system would also increase transparency, accountability and awareness of best practices, as well as appropriately improve public confidence where merited…