The announcement is particularly timely, given the issuance of new guidelines by the US pharmaceutical trade body – Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) - to issue new guidelines on how companies should interact with healthcare professionals.
Among the strictures in the new guidelines, which came into effect on January 1, is a ban on distributing office supplies, clothes and other gifts with company logos or product brand names to physicians and clinics. However, critics have taken issue with the absence of controls on the amount companies can pay doctors for consultancy services and to speak on behalf of their products.
ICTS’ new medical science liaison (MSL) service will be led by the company’s chief medical officer and vice president of clinical operations Dr. David Shearer.
It promises to “better communicate key information regarding new products and medical therapies to the medical community,” according to an ICTS statement.
“The MSL process can strengthen a product or therapy's market penetration by properly relaying vital information that educates key opinion leaders on a product or therapy and will create opportunities for product implementation,” said the firm.
ICTS’ primary business is in the area of patient recruitment, enrolment and retention in clinical trials, via a network of 300 contract employees around the world.