GD Topic - Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices 2024: Ethical Standards in Pharmaceutical Marketing

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Senior Executive - Editorial

Updated on Sep 29, 2025 10:52 IST

Candidates planning to get admitted to top B-schools and pursue MBA must prepare well for the entrance exam and the group discussion round. The GD topic can be related to current affairs, business trends, or abstract concepts. Refer to the space below to get information on the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024.

Group Discussion is the second step of the MBA admission process. With MBA entrance exams going on, candidates must start preparing for the Group Discussion Round. After the entrance exams such as CAT, XAT, SNAP, NMAT, and MAH MBA CET are over, the GD/PI round will be conducted. Under this round, a group of candidates will get a topic on which they have to discuss for about 20-25 minutes. The judges will score each candidate based on their communication skills, leadership skills, knowledge, time management, English proficiency, and other skills required for a course in business management.

Candidates seeking admission to Management of Business Administration must check the below article on the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices 2024, which is one of the pressing topics of this year.

Table of content

What is the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP)?
Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP): History
Need for Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024
Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024
Key Features of UCPMP 2024
Top GD Topics for MBA GD/PI Round

What is the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP)?

The Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) is a set of ethical guidelines introduced to regulate the marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies in India. The motive behind these practices is to control unethical promotional activities and regulate interactions between pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders. This promotes fairness, transparency, and a sense of responsibility. These codes are crucial to ensure that pharmaceutical companies focus on patient welfare.

Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP): History

India is one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical industries serving the domestic healthcare needs of its citizens. It is also leading in exports globally. However, the pharma industry is being criticized for engaging in unethical practices such as getting bribes to promote specific drugs to patients. Such drugs are generally prescribed on the advice of marketing personnel of these pharma companies. These unfair practices often lead to reduced patient trust in fair treatment and also lead to unwanted drug intake, which might have other consequences on health.

To reduce the unethical marketing practices in the pharma industry, on December 12, 2014, the Central Government of India released the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP). The basic motive behind the initiation of this code was to encourage pharmaceutical companies to do some self-regulation. The government wanted to ensure fair marketing practices and transparency in the use and promotion of drugs.

UCPMP was a voluntary code. It came into effect on January 1, 2015. Initially, it was introduced for six months from its issue date. While launching this code, the government stated that, if, after the review process, it found out that the pharmaceutical companies are not properly implementing the code, then the government will focus on making UCPMP a statutory regulation.

However, as suspected, due to the code's voluntary nature and lack of proper implementation mechanisms, the pharma industry failed to comply with UCPMP. Due to the failure in its implementation, the central government decided to make UCPMP a statutory code. This decision resulted in the introduction of UCPMP 2024.

Need for Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024

The Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices was introduced to ensure ethical marketing practices in the pharma industry. However, due to the following reasons, the government decided to initiate UCPMP 2024:

When UCPMP was introduced in 2015, it was not legally binding for pharma companies. They had the liberty to decide whether or not they would follow the code. At that time, most of the pharmaceutical companies did not follow the guidelines. This led to violations and unethical marketing practices.
Despite the UCPMP code, people were still offering bribes to the healthcare professionals in the form of expensive gifts, trips, etc., to get drugs.
The UCPMP 2015 was not properly implemented and monitored; therefore, it was difficult for the authorities to penalize the offenders. Also, there was no dedicated regulatory framework. Hence, many complaints against the violators remained unaddressed.
Earlier, people were not aware of these unethical practices. However, with the increase in public awareness, the demand for implementing strict rules and regulations in the healthcare sector has increased.
Giving out drugs without a proper prescription has a direct impact on public health. To resolve this issue, the government had to build a regulatory framework to protect patients from unnecessary or harmful medicines. The strict rules were necessary to ensure that the patients get their prescription based only on their health condition.

Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024

To reduce the persistent unethical pharmaceutical practices and address other concerns, the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) established a mandatory framework, the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices 2024, on March 12, 2024. It is also known as UCPMP 2024 or The Code. The basic aim of The Code is to promote transparency, accountability, and integrity in the promotion of pharmaceutical products and interactions between pharmaceutical companies and medical practitioners.

Key Features of UCPMP 2024

The Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices 2024 has the following features:

1. Mandatory: Unlike the UCPMP 2015, the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024 is compulsory. The pharma companies are legally bound to follow the rules. With mandatory compliance, the Government of India aims to enforce ethical standards in healthcare marketing.

2. Permission for Brand Reminders: The ways used by healthcare companies to keep their brand or product on the minds of their potential customers are known as brand reminders. Companies give brand reminders to increase their brand loyalty and chances of repeat customers. According to the UCPMP 2024, a company can give brand reminders in only these two conditions:

If the reminder is for informational and educational items
If a company is providing free samples to the medical professional

3. Initiation of ECPMP: According to "The Code", the pharmaceutical associations must establish an Ethics Committee for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (ECPMP) to oversee the implementation of UCPMP. The ECPMP will be chaired by the CEO of the association and will have three to five members. The members will be responsible for addressing the complaints received and ensuring the code is being implemented.

4. Addressing Complaints: According to the guidelines of UCPMP 2024, the pharma companies have to follow a structured process to file complaints against unethical marketing practices. Besides, if the complainant is not satisfied with the decision of ECPMP, they can re-appeal to the Apex Committee for Pharma Marketing Practices. The ACPMP is headed by the Secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals. The ACPMP aims to resolve the appeal within six months.

5. Transparent Interactions: According to the UCPMP code, there should be transparent interactions between the pharma companies and the healthcare professionals.

6. Public Disclosure of Complaints: The UCPMP 2024 states that the pharmaceutical association must publish the details of the complaints received by them. The details include the nature of the complaint, the company involved, and the actions taken by the association. Additionally, the association is obliged to retain these details for five years on its website and must share them on the UCPMP portal.

Candidates can also refer to the given below PDF for detailed information on Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices 2024, issued by the Department of Pharmaceuticals on their official website:

Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) 2024