Novo Nordisk has been accepted back into the fold. Two years after suspending Novo, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has reinstated the Danish drugmaker after seeing “clear, significant and sustained improvements.”
ABPI suspended Novo in March 2023 over serious breaches of its code of practice. The action followed an investigation into sponsored courses offered on LinkedIn that, in the view of a code of practice appeal board, amounted to a “large-scale Saxenda promotional campaign which Novo Nordisk knowingly paid for and which was disguised.”
The resulting suspension was imposed for two years.
ABPI said Monday that the suspension had been lifted after the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), the body that enforces the code, carried out “extensive audits of Novo Nordisk’s compliance procedures and governance.” The details of those audits are kept confidential.
Based on the audit reports and other evidence, the ABPI board ruled Novo has made the necessary progress “to ensure it is able to properly adhere to the strict industry standards” in the code of practice.
Sebnem Avsar Tuna, general manager of Novo Nordisk U.K., said in a statement that the company has “considerably strengthened” its compliance processes so it can “be fully and effectively self-regulating.”
Other issues came to light as Novo worked to improve its processes. The company voluntarily admitted to failing to disclose payments in 2023, leading the PMCPA to rule it brought discredit to the industry the following year. The ruling, a breach of clause 2 of the code, was one of four times Novo was found to have brought discredit to the industry last year.
With some of the cases covering similar topics, the documentation publicly released by the PMCPA throughout the suspension period often provided a look at where Novo was making progress and what gaps remained in terms of its compliance with the trade group’s code of practice.