PHM-Exch> Medical Association penalized for endorsing food products India

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Gopal Dabade <drdabade at gmail.com>


Publication: The Times Of India Chennai;
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQ0gvMjAxMC8xMS8yMCNBcjAwMzAx&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom


Chennai: After more than two years of arguments at different fora over
the Indian Medical Association (IMA) endorsing two food products in
violation of its own ethics and Medical Council of India (MCI)
regulations, the MCI has decided to remove the IMA secretary and
president from the Indian medical register for six months.

   The action means that the doctors will not be able to practise for
six months. The MCI has also decided to send censure letters to all
187 IMA executive committee members “to not repeat such practices in
future”. This is the first time in the history of the IMA, which
represents two lakh doctors in the country, that the names of its
office-bearers would be removed from the register.

   The MCI ethics committee meeting on November 9 took the decision,
which was later ratified by the board of directors.

   The IMA had, in April 2008, signed a Rs 2.25-crore contract with
Pepsico to allow Tropicana juice and Quaker oats to use its logo on
their packs for three years. The controversy was triggered by Dr KV
Babu, an IMA central committee member, who complained to MCI on June
6, 2008, and followed it up with RTI applications that brought out
details of endorsements.


     In a similar case in 1988, the American Medical Association (AMA)
had to pay $9.9 million to withdraw from a contract it
signed with Sunbeam Corporation. While that was an endorsement of
medical equipment, the IMA became the first professional body of
doctors in the world to endorse a food product
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