ATTENDANCE AT MEDICAL CONGRESSES COULD DECREASE AS FROM 2018
According to the data published in Hosteltur (17 February 2017), the pharmaceutical industry spends a total of 120 million euros per year for Spanish professional meetings in the sphere of health. However, this is about to change due to the funding restrictions that pharmacists plan to introduce as from the 1 January 2018.
The new ethical code of the industry passed by Eucomed concludes that the member companies of this association involved in medical technology in Europe will not provide direct economic support to health professionals in relation to their attendance at medical congresses. Therefore, it is feared that the National Business Association of the Spanish Pharmaceutical Industry will follow in the path of Eucomed and slow down meeting tourism in the medical sector.
This fact could lead to a considerable decrease in attendance of professionals at the congresses, which according to the President of the Spanish Association of Andrology, Sexual and Reproductive Medicine, “could drop by between 30 and 50%” (Nexotur, 20 February 2017).
