29 big pharma companies have put €4.5m into a fund to enable Interpol to conduct a three year programme to try to clamp down on the growing problem of counterfeit drugs. Interpol’s “Pharmaceutical Crime Programme” aims to prevent all types of counterfeit drugs including through identifying and dismantling the organised crime networks behind this illegal… Learn more
Dear v Jackson, Court of Appeal The Court of Appeal has overturned a decision of the High Court to imply terms into a contract because a sensible bargain could have been made either with or without the implied term. The case involved Mr Dear and Mr Griffith, shareholders and directors in a company. They had… Learn more
On 12 March 2013, I spoke at a HR Forum organised by Deloitte to discuss issues that employers are beginning to find themselves confronted with following the removal of the compulsory retirement age in April 2012; and “age” becoming a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. If you haven’t already begun to do so,… Learn more
The Government has introduced the Late Payment of Commercial Debt Regulations. They implement the EU Late Payment Directive and come into force on 16 March 2013. The Directive set out minimum provisions which Governments needed to introduce. The Government decided that the UK law on late payments was largely sufficient. On four issues on which… Learn more
Roche has promised to give access to data regarding its clinical trials to external third parties for independent scientific review. The disclosure would ensure patient confidentiality, Roche said. “We understand and support calls for our industry to be more transparent about clinical trial data with the aim of meeting the best interests of patients and… Learn more
Following criticism at the PharmaTimes debate between Ben Goldacre and Stephen Whitehead over the ABPI’s record on ensuring transparency of clinical trial data, on the following day the ABPI announced that it would put in place measures to monitor compliance with the open trial data parts of the ABPI Code of Practice. It will appoint… Learn more
The Government has announced a change to the Patents Act so that clinical and field trials and health technology assessment can be carried out on existing patented drugs when trialling and assessing new drugs, without having to face being sued for patent infringement. This follows a consultation which was overwhelmingly in favour of the change.… Learn more
Acas has launched a consultation on its draft statutory Code of Practice to help employers deal with the new extended right to request flexible working and the replacement of the current statutory procedure with a new duty on employers to consider requests to work flexibly within a reasonable period. The Children and Families Bill, which… Learn more
Following on from the recent introduction into Parliament of the Children and Families Bill, which will, amongst other things, introduce a new system of shared parental leave and pay, the Government has published a consultation paper on how the proposed shared parental leave and pay scheme will work. The publication of the consultation paper follows… Learn more
Acas and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) have published a new guide, Mediation: an approach to resolving workplace issues, which aims to assist employers, trade unions and employees in deciding whether, and in what circumstances, mediation may be appropriate in a workplace dispute. Mediation is a process used for resolving workplace disputes,… Learn more