The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which was officially launched last week, has initiated several moves to improve its transparency and public profile.
The agency has decided to publish the outcome of its investigations into complaints about pharmaceutical company advertising.
It will publish on its website the outcome of complaints received from 1 December. Details will include a description of the complaint (the name of the company and product); the date of the complaint and its source (which will be anonymised), the agency's conclusion; and what action has been agreed with the company (whether the advertisement is to be amended or to be withdrawn or whether a corrective statement is to be issued).
The pharmaceutical industry currently regulates itself through the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, which is based at the same offices as the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. Although the authority says it is independent of industry, questions have always been raised over how effective a regulator it is.
Dr Gordon Munro, the head of the medicines division of the MHRA, told the BMJ that the agency had always wanted to do publish the results of investigations into complaints, but now had approval from its lawyers that it could safely name products.
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said it supported the move.
The agency also wants to improve its communications to build a higher public profile. It is currently undertaking a tendering process to find a communications agency.
Dr Munro says the agency is discussing whether it should have its own communications arm or leave this to the Department of Health, as is currently the case. One of the key recommendations of the National Audit Office's report on the Medicines Control Agency, the predecessor of the MHRA, published in January 2003 was that it should increase its public profile.
