Pharma

Key Training Takeaways from the 2021 Virtual Compliance Congress for Specialty Products

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , , ,

Although Informa’s virtual 2021 Compliance Congress for Specialty Products was targeted to those companies that focus on rare and orphan diseases, many of the key messages shared by the panel of industry professionals and regulators were applicable to compliance professionals from companies of all shapes and sizes.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the three-day conference, with my thoughts on what those messages mean for your compliance training program:

To say the pandemic has changed the way life sciences conducts business may be cliché, but based on the presentations in this conference as well as the Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress in April, at least some of those changes are here to stay. Change begats an increased volume of risk, and in the opening session, Keeping Up with Industry Trends — Top Compliance Concerns Facing CCOs, presenters emphasized the need for risk assessments now more than ever.

1. The current pace of change highlights the importance of risk assessment.

You need to take the same approach with your training curriculum. What are the key risk areas based on your company’s products? How often are the topics relevant to your product covered in live and online training? Are key areas addressed with reinforcement and just-in-time training? We call this process the Compliance Curriculum Analysis Process (CCAP). In fact, I wrote about how the process can improve outcomes for the publication, Life Science Compliance Update, back in 2017. Thanks to the pandemic, and increased governmental scrutiny, it’s even more relevant today.  

2. Choose the right company when making a career move.

While most presentations in compliance conferences are focused on the best practices and concepts necessary to optimize a program, hearing one of the presenters stress the need to be aware of culture before joining a company was refreshing and enlightening. As the presenter pointed out, you cannot be shy about exploring whether the company makes compliance meaningful and if compliance is valued – before you accept a job offer.

Don’t forget to explore their approach to training as well. Are they regularly rolling out the kind of creative training and microlearning that helps flatten the “forgetting curve” my colleague Dan O’Connor, Erica Powers of Sage Therapeutics, and Karen Snyder of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals addressed in the Optimize Your Compliance Training: A Practical Approach to the DOJ’s Guidance session? (By the way, you really should see the slides from that presentation and the examples of fun an innovative training your peers are using to help reduce risk. Drop me an email at smurphy@nxlevelsolutions.com if you’re interested.)

3. Equip leaders with consistent and proper messaging.

In a twist on the familiar “tone-from-top” mantra, another presenter in the opening CCO session stressed the need for the compliance department to take the lead in providing leadership with the proper messaging needed to reinforce that tone. As he said, “consistency is key as you cascade communication across your program.” It applies to training as well. Not only does the C-Suite need to be trained in the same concepts and policies as employees, they, and the management team, need to be repeatedly reminded of the need for a seamless message. As we’ve been told in just about every conference over the last five years, you need to earn a “seat at the table” with leadership. Once you’re in that proverbial seat, helping them espouse the messaging necessary to keep your program consistent is the key to keeping it meaningful.

4. Don’t decline meetings during the pandemic.

During the Compliance During a Pandemic session, presenters spoke at length about the importance of open lines of communication and the need to make every attempt to meet with business colleagues whenever possible. The businesses and field employees need to know you are accessible when they have questions. As another presenter chimed in, “you need to constantly make sure they know who to go to.”  That concept extends to your training curriculum. Does your training include surveys and other feedback mechanisms? Do you encourage outreach in your eLearning? Creating and nurturing an open dialogue can only make your training more effective, during the pandemic and beyond.

5. If you’re going to have live speaker programs, you need to be wary of red flags.

That’s according to one presenter during the prosecutors’ presentation on high-priority risk areas. As he put it, the very fact that HHS even issued the Special Fraud Alert on Speaker Programs should be interpreted as a warning. While multiple presenters in other sessions suggested their companies will move to hybrid models with virtual and live programs, the opinions of the prosecutors were clear: expect the OIG’s focus to be on the live versions.

Managing Speaker Program Risk is one of the newly updated Compliance Foundations eLearning modules available from PharmaCertify. It covers the critical content your reps need to understand to remain in compliance, and like all our modules, it’s easily customized with your policies and content! Contact me to see a demo.

6. Not every patient advocacy organization is the size of the American Diabetes Association.

Day 2 kicked off with the Optimize and Mitigate Risk within Patient Interactions and Support Programs. Presenters noted the trickiness in dealing with advocacy groups in particular – not all the groups will be large and experienced enough to understand the potential pitfalls of compliance. You may need to educate them on the guidelines and principles, and that can be a challenge, especially on the delivery front since outside learners often don’t have access to your internal learning management system.

PharmaCertify can help with the Access LMS platform. Access LMS is a cloud-based, affordable alternative for reaching outside vendors and organizations with your compliance training. It’s simple, it’s easy-to-use, and it won’t break your budget. Contact my colleague, Dan O’Connor, at doconnor@nxlevelsolutions.com to see a demo. 

7. Dig deep into the weeds with MSL/commercial training.

The relationship between the medical and commercial divisions is nuanced and fraught with risk. During the Compliant Frameworks for Medical Affairs and Commercial Interactions session, a presenter whose company recently launched its first product reinforced the need for detail. While medical/commercial interactions have always been a pain point for her, she clarifies gray areas on topics such as “the rules for visiting HCPs together,” with what she calls “ways of working documents that clarify what each group can do and why.

At PharmaCertify, we take the same approach with our MSLs and Sales Reps: Understanding the Divide Compliance Foundations module. The content is designed to cover each role in a manner that helps reps and MSLs understand their own rules as well as those of the other group. I’d be happy to send you a content outline.

8. Follow the money. The prosecutors are.

It’s no secret that the government is scouring Open Payments data. And they are following the trail of money flowing to HCPs. During the enforcement panel, one prosecutor bluntly stated, “if you pay a provider hundreds of thousands of dollars, we are going to be looking at it.”

Reps need to consistently be reminded of HCP spend limits and incorporating microlearning components like on-going assessments and quizzes into your curriculum is key to ensuring those numbers are top of mind. We’d welcome the opportunity to show you how it works.    

Summary

Kudos to Informa and all presenters for putting forth a valuable and important learning experience despite the challenges that always accompany a virtual event. The pandemic has changed the way in which we share ideas, best practices, and personal experiences as much as it has changed the industry in general. As the world inches back to a more “normal” approach to information sharing, I anxiously await the day when we can again meet in person in a conference exhibit hall and exchange ideas for how you can reduce risk and build a stronger ethical culture through training.

Thanks for reading!

Sean Murphy
PharmaCertify by NXLevel Solutions

A Preview of the 2021 Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress…As Seen Through My Compliance Training Glasses

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , ,

pcc2021In what could be Informa’s final “virtual” compliance congress (fingers crossed), the spring kickoff Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress offers a plethora (sweet…I got to use “plethora!”) of industry leaders and government representatives covering oft discussed, yet still relevant topics, mixed with new and timely entries to the agenda (e.g., transparency tips for 2021, advancing virtual interactions, applying behavioral science to drive an ethical culture).

From a compliance training standpoint, the general sessions and breakout workshops at PCC offer attendees the rare opportunity to evaluate their own programs and curricula against the industry standards espoused by the well-known panelists and presenters. The bottom line: if you want to keep up with your peers, you really should try to be there. We can help make that happen with a sponsor discount on the regular registration rate. Just email me for the details, get yourself registered, and get ready to soak up three days of the information you need to keep your training meaningful.

I’ve perused the conference agenda with an eye toward what each session could mean for you in general and for your 2021 training plan and here are a few of the sessions that jump off the screen:

Day 1: Tuesday, April 27

Refill your coffee cup before 10:15 am, and make sure the rest of your morning/early afternoon calendar is clear because after the chairperson’s welcome, Informa comes out of the gate swinging with three general sessions sure to have you glued to your computer screen.

The fun begins at 10:50 with James Stansel, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at PhRMA presenting the Current Snapshot of Affairs Coming Off an Unprecedented and Politically Charged Year. Could there be a more aptly titled presentation to kick off a life sciences compliance conference after what we went though over the last 12 months?

The content you really don’t want to miss starts flowing with the Fireside Chat with CCOs – Top 10 Items on Their Radar and Why They Should Be on Yours presentation from 11:00 – 12:00. Who doesn’t love a good top ten list? (except of course David Letterman since we are just “borrowing” the concept from him.) Other than maybe “best one hit wonder music acts,” I can’t think of a topic sure to have the audience around the virtual office water cooler buzzing for weeks to follow. And, let’s face it, once someone mentions Come on Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners, the one hit wonder list just runs out of staying power, while that OIG Speaker Programs Fraud Alert is going to be on the industry’s mind for months to follow. Toora loora toora loo rye ay!

We break for lunch at 12:00 – but as importantly, you have plenty of time to visit the virtual Exhibit Hall and learn about the various products and services available from the vendors. We’ll be at the PharmaCertify booth with demos of our newest eLearning modules and other training tools to help you manage your company’s risk and build a stronger culture of ethics and compliance. We’re creating some cool (and effective) stuff that you really need to see. I implore you…come see us lonely vendors!

File the third general session, the Keynote Enforcement Panel, in the “oft discussed but still quite relevant” category. The panelists here represent the metaphorical heart of the PCC batting order, with an acting U.S. Attorney and a First Assistant U.S. Attorney being joined by a representative of the DOJ and another from a private law firm to hold court (okay, am I pushing the euphemisms too far?) over the audience with the latest list of topics expected to be at the forefront of enforcement this year.

At 3:00 pm on Day 1, the agenda is divided into four simultaneous working groups. All of them look compelling for different reasons, but if transparency training is on your 2021 radar, I suggest Trends from 2020 Transparency Reporting and Tips for 2021 with Terra Buckley and Chelsea Ott, both of Medpro Advisory Services. Terra is one of the best industry presenters I have heard on the life sciences compliance circuit and her recent move to head up the advisory services for Medpro is quite a coup for the company and quite a bonus for its clients. Terra knows the ins and outs of transparency (and all things compliance, for that matter) and she is sure to leave you with actionable suggestions for optimizing your program.  

At the same time, I can make an equally compelling case for the Advancing Digital and Virtual Interactions session, or the Optimizing Compliant Patient Interactions session based on recent headlines and settlements as well as the compliance star-studded panel scheduled for each one. Since the sessions are simultaneous, teaming up with colleagues and taking copious notes to share later is your best option to ensure appropriate coverage. That’s my plan, and if you’re looking for a “study buddy,” I’m happy to join forces. Don’t be shy, call me!

Day 2: Wednesday, April 28

After the annual year in review video presentation, the OIG fraud alert makes its first scheduled appearance at 10:30 on Day 2 with the Analysis of OIG Special Fraud Alert on Speaker Programs and Assessment of Future Activities. Considering the buzz it has stirred up in the industry since its release, don’t expect this to be the first, or final, reference to the document during the conference. The FDA Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) and Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) will follow at 11:05 and 11:35 respectively, in two sessions that typically prove to be helpful peaks into each agency’s workplan and focal points for the upcoming year.

Then at 12:00, it’s back to the Exhibit Hall. We’ll be waiting in case you didn’t get the chance to stop by on Day 1. After all, look at this top-notch lineup of sponsors and exhibitors ready to hear about your challenges and help you meet you goals!

During the afternoon, the 1:40 session, titled, Former Prosecutor Panel – Answers and Insights from Industry’s Trusted Advisors should offer insight, tips, and suggestions from a panel with unique insight into both sides of the regulatory table. And the CCO & GC Luminary Panel – Leading Strategies to Advance the Business and Accelerate Innovation, scheduled for 3:00, features a list of well-known and respected professionals, including Beth Holly from Regeneron.

At 4:00, attendees again break into one of four simultaneous “roundtable exchanges” to end the day. Depending on your priorities and business profile, you may not want to miss Table Talk A, Speaker Programs or Table Talk B, Insights for Emerging and Newly Commercial Companies, but I would be remiss to not recommend Table Talk D, Creative Compliance Training Solutions. My colleague, Dan O’Connor, will be joined by Jackie Parris of Incyte and Jen Anderson of Vertex to delve into how each company is using innovative training solutions to reduce risk across their companies. You don’t want to miss the demos in this one, so remember to “divide and conquer” across all the sessions if necessary.

Day 3: Thursday, April 29

The final day of the conference features a global tilt, beginning with the IFPMA Spotlight – Deep Dive into Evolving International Best Practices at 9:30, followed by Global Payments and FMV at 10:05, and the EU e-Privacy Directive and the Impact on Monitoring Digital Communications and Social Channels (that one is a mouthful, isn’t it?) at 10:40. Whether your company has a global footprint or not, the life sciences world is a small one and we’ve come a long way since the days of the FCPA being the primary driver of worldwide regulation, best practices, and ultimately, your training curriculum.  

The day ends with a one-hour Diversity and Inclusion Summit at 12:00. It’s a timely and important (if not long overdue) way to close the conference and I will be listening for ideas on how the panelists integrate diversity concepts and messaging into their compliance training.

Summary

Hopefully, the next time I write a compliance congress preview (Informa or PCF), it will be in anticipation of an upcoming live conference. As much as I appreciate the efforts of conference organizers to replicate the live experience virtually, frankly it can’t match the value of gathering in-person. For vendors and industry attendees alike, nothing replaces the insight available through face-to-face interactions.

That being said, Informa has created a compelling agenda for this year’s virtual version of the Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress with sessions applicable to both the new and seasoned life sciences compliance professional. Opportunities, such as this, to hear from esteemed leaders in the field and regulators are rare, and anyone interested in hearing up-to-date data, tips, and suggestions for modernizing and maintaining an effective compliance program should make every effort to attend. Again, we can help with that.

Thanks for reading. I will see you online at the Congress!

Sean Murphy
PharmaCertify by NXLevel Solutions

Compliance Training Lessons from the 2020 Virtual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , ,

Part 3: Compliance Training in An Uncertain Time

This is the third and final post in a series covering the compliance training lessons learned at the 2020 Virtual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress. Throughout the conference, regulators and industry professionals stressed the need for constant evaluation and modification of all aspects of a compliance program, including the training program. The successful mitigation of risk in a program requires continual careful documentation and evaluation of training topics, audiences, and deployment frequency, as well as the effectiveness of the tools utilized to deploy the training.   

We’ll see you back in Washington D.C. for PCC2021!

To say 2020 has been an eventful and tumultuous year for the life sciences industry is an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced sudden change in the way in which business is conducted and created a milieu of unforeseen compliance concerns. Those issues were certainly not lost on the presenters at the 2020 Virtual Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress as timely suggestions for managing the “new normal” were blended with more traditional content related to building and managing an effective compliance program. One presenter summarized it interestingly when she said, “the plan you prepared in January does not make sense with what you need to focus on now.”

The need for on-going risk assessment was repeated throughout the conference, beginning in the Enforcement Docket Deep Dive session with one U.S. Attorney commenting, “programs must be updated over time to align with changes in the business and changes in settlements.” That risk assessment includes the on-going analysis and evaluation of a training curriculum, particularly as the way in which the industry interacts with each other and with HCPs continues to evolve.

A Rush to Roll Out New Training

The rush to cover new topics based on updated policies for virtual interactions can lead to a convoluted curriculum and do more harm than good. Regularly scheduled, comprehensive curriculum analysis helps ensure ongoing training covers existing and new topics with the right audiences, at the right level of detail, with the proper frequency based on the level of risk – and that analysis should not be pushed aside solely for the sake of expediency.

A “risk level” analysis has always been a foundational step in identifying content gaps and the need for updates in the topics covered. 2020 is no exception as the pandemic has forced a change in the way field teams interact with HCPs and conduct support programs. During the session, Look at How In-House Legal and Compliance Departments are Evolving in 2020 to Help Address Business Challenges, one compliance officer succinctly put it, “The way in which we do business has changed, so policies need to be more precise and training must be more engaging.”

Curriculum analysis begins with documenting a detailed list of topics covered in current training materials versus those required by the shift to virtual engagements. (Incidentally, PhRMA’s Statement on Application of PhRMA Code Section 2 During Emergency Periods is a good starting point for those changes). Your documentation should specifically include the target audience for each topic and indicate the level of risk each topic represents for each audience, as well as the frequency and level of detail at which each topic is presented.

Following the documentation phase, an analysis is necessary to determine whether the level of training versus the risk for the audience is sufficient. As a final step, solutions to address gaps and redundancies can be planned as new topics are added to the curriculum.

Increasing Retention and Enhancing Learning

An effective training curriculum also requires ongoing “engagement evaluation” to ensure learning is maximized. Let’s face it, the sudden onslaught of new and updated policies on virtual interactions is causing confusion. During the Candid Conversations on Key Themes and Industry Insights session of the conference, more than one panelist cited the movement to virtual programs as the topic keeping them up at night. The variables abound, and just updating foundational training programs with new policies is risky and flawed. More novel methods of training (quizzes, gamification, microlearning, etc.) offer opportunities to integrate nuggets of information into the curriculum and cut through the clutter of change to help raise engagement levels.

One industry speaker highlighted this best when he said, “You need to give them the tools to deal with awkward situations in this new way of conducting business, like how to respond to off-label questions.” That tool list begins with updated training components deployed repeatedly and strategically across the learner’s timeline. The changes wrought by COVID-19 only heighten the need to evaluate your curriculum for its power to change individual behavior – especially with updates to policies and changes in SOPs happening at such an unforeseen rate.

Unsolicited Change

The unknown can be daunting. The writer and poet Raheel Farooq once wrote, “The greatest fear in life is not of death, but unsolicited change.” We, as an industry, a country, and a world, have certainly seen our share of unsolicited change this year and it wasn’t lost on the presenters at this year’s conference. Panelists were quick to admit they didn’t have all the answers in terms of how training, and compliance in general, should be managed in these tumultuous times, but that’s okay. I’m confident most attendees would agree that the opportunity to share concerns, questions, and ideas was worthwhile, valuable, and reassuring. Kudos to all the presenters and conference organizers for making the 2020 Pharmaceutical Compliance Congress such a success under such difficult circumstances. I look forward to attending the 2021 conference “live and in-person,” as I am sure do you.

Thanks for reading!

Sean Murphy
PharmaCertify By NXLevel Solutions

Dear Connie, the Compliance Training Specialist, Tackles Return-To-Work Policy Training

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to “Dear Connie, the Compliance Training Specialist,” where we answer questions about compliance training topics and present solutions for strengthening your compliance culture and reducing risk.

This week: Don’t forsake the fundamentals when building return-to-work policy training.

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Dear Connie,

As my company considers reopening our offices under the threat of COVID-19, I’ve been asked to create training based on our new back to work policy. The policy covers precautionary measures (wearing a mask, hygiene, social distancing, etc.) as well as the potential risk factors (international travel, living with someone who has tested positive, sore throat, shortness of breath, etc.).

What type of training do you recommend based on this unique content? Obviously, face-to-face training is not plausible right now, but is one eLearning module enough for a topic this important?

Signed,

Cautious in California

Dear Cautious,

Great question! As the life sciences industry, and the country in general, plans a careful return to work, now is the time to finalize a training and communication plan to help maximize the safety and well-being of employees. A topic this important deserves not to be rushed and framing the challenge within the context of the ADDIE model is important.

Analysis

You don’t want to miss any instructional challenges on a topic like this one. For example, what are the different roles of the learners? Do you have to consider different training tools for office staff versus lab employees? How about field employees? What pre-existing knowledge does each group bring to the training? Only after you’ve established the learner groups and identified the challenges of reaching each of those groups, can you start to design the proper training.

Design

Now you need to establish the learning objectives and think about how the content will be structured and what tools will be utilized. I would certainly consider a campaign approach, perhaps starting with an eLearning module, followed by other learning nuggets, to make it more memorable and engaging. You may want to also consider on-site posters to reinforce key messages, like the need for employees to follow the rules on washing hands and not touching their faces.

Development

In a case like this, development extends well beyond just creating a storyboard for an introductory eLearning module. The content needs to be organized in a manner that maximizes the engagement for each group, as determined in the design phase. The tools and media utilized to emphasize key messages are important. Animated video, for example, is a popular trend, but you need to be careful the animation doesn’t present such serious content in an inappropriate or humorous manner.

Implementation

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that since this is critical to their safety and well-being, the learners are going to welcome the training with open arms and dive in enthusiastically. Implementing the training in a manner that optimizes retention is critical, perhaps more than ever. Consider the way in which lessons are “chunked” and delivered across each learner’s timeline.

Evaluation

Training intended to help employees learn the rules of returning to work during the COVID-19 crisis should be evaluated and adjusted accordingly. Gather feedback from the learners through surveys and personal outreach. You need to know it’s working, and you need to answer the learners’ questions. Consider sending out short updates as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issues new guidance. Don’t let the training get stale!

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the life sciences industry, but the fundamentals of memorable and effective training stay the same. Now is not the time to abandon those principles and practices to expedite the development and launch of new policy training. In fact, when faced with the challenges of ensuring the health and safety of employees, just the opposite is true.

My friends at NXLevel Solutions have over 15 years of experience developing policy training that improves retention of content and changes learner behavior. Contact Dan O’Connor at doconnor@nxlevelsolutions.com to ask how they can help ensure your “Return to Work” training helps maximize the safety of your company’s employees during these uncertain and crazy times.

Thanks for the question and stay safe!

Connie

Connie the Compliance Training Manager Tackles New Hire Training!

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , , , ,

Welcome to a new edition of “Dear Connie, the Compliance Training Specialist,” where Connie answers questions about life science compliance training concepts and discusses new ideas for making that training more effective.

This week: Connie hears from a compliance training manager looking for a more exciting way to train new sales representatives.

Dear Connie,

I know I should change my new hire compliance training session for the sales representatives because my PowerPoint deck might be getting a little stale, but I only get an hour in front of them, so I don’t really have time for a more creative approach. Any suggestions?

Concerned Compliance Manager in Cambridge

Dear Concerned,

You may be surprised to hear that an hour is more than enough time to conduct a more engaging and more memorable live training session. Now is the time to ditch that overused and dull PowerPoint deck!

Make it More Competitive

Research shows that learners are motivated by competition. So how about creating a Jeopardy-style game format with questions designed around your company’s policies and risks? In my experience, five categories, with five questions per category, fills an hour of time. Make sure you take a few minutes after each question to explain why the answer is right or wrong and ask the participants for examples of similar situations they have faced.

Depending on the size of your audience, I suggest you pick 3-5 participants per team to “represent” groups in the audience and have representatives buzz in once they think they know the answer. It’s a great way to take the learning to another level and create an interactive experience where ideas are exchanged with the audience. One warning: have someone there with a timer to make sure they don’t buzz in and then take forever to figure out the answer.

Make it More Engaging

You could also create an interactive workshop where the participants are divided into groups and asked to “solve” compliance scenarios together. Break the workshop into two activities to keep it moving and make sure each team has a tablet or laptop on a table. I like the idea of a Compliance Sprint as the first activity. Have the teams solve a series of exercises (a card sort works well) based on situations they are likely to encounter in the field.

You could also mix in a Compliance Mystery. The same teams play compliance “detective” and solve more complex scenarios with the help of a series of clues. The clues can be emails, phone call transcripts, business cards from a meeting, or whatever clues help provide hints about the scenario. Be creative and make it fun, but make sure you make it realistic in terms of their work activities. Of course, both activities should be scored and tracked on a leader board to raise the engagement level even more.

If you have the time and resources, you can certainly create the game or the workshop in-house, but my friends at PharmaCertify (that’s the compliance training division of NXLevel Solutions) have workshops just like the ones I described that are easily customized with your content. I’ve been there when their clients have used their workshops, and wow it is fun to watch the learning! They’d be happy to demo the workshops for you. Just email Tessa Hoyer at thoyer@nxlevelsolutions.com.

Thanks for the question and remember to make it fun and make it memorable!

Your compatriot in compliance training,

Connie

Lessons Learned at the 2018 Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Congress

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , , , , , ,

Lesson 3: Learning to Listen

“There is only one rule for being a good talker – learn to listen.”
Christopher Morley

The importance of effective communication and more specifically, listening, wasn’t lost on the speakers at the 19th Annual Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Compliance Congress. The consequences of poor listening were summarized by one panelist on the Qui Tam Roundtable when she said, “the vast majority of whistleblowers who contact me have tried to report their concerns to the company, but the company didn’t want to hear it.” In an era when the nuances of an effective compliance program are discussed and debated in detail, the simple yet often lost art of effective listening needs to be a priority.

The value of listening extends across all departments and business units and it starts with field-based employees. A presenter in the Compliance Considerations for Small to Mid-Size Companies session echoed that sentiment, saying, “the stream of questions from the field is not going to stop, but those questions tell a story and you need to monitor them carefully and build your plan from there.” The data from those responsible for interacting with healthcare professionals is critical as you evolve your program and look for gaps and redundancies that need to be addressed in personal interactions and in your continuous training curriculum. And listening for that data begins with open, non-judgmental relationships across the company. Or, as another presenter in the Compliance Considerations for Small to Mid-Size Companies session stated it, “when employees interact with the compliance department, they should not feel like they are being judged.”

The need for open lines of communication doesn’t stop with the field. The industry trend toward “building a culture of ethics and compliance,” and frankly, the regulatory focus on the culpability of those in the C-Suite and boards of directors, more than ever, dictates the need for open and regular communication with company leadership. The proverbial “seat at the table” for Compliance extends upward in the organization. As was stated during the AUSA Roundtable, “Compliance should have a good relationship with the Chief Executive Officer, and the officers of the company. The two departments need to communicate openly and honestly.” He continued, “when issues do arise, the Department of Justice needs to see that you are being proactive and responding to those issues.” In other words, listening to one and another.

During the Chief Compliance Officer Roundtable, the risks associated with the use of third-party vendors was discussed in detail and the need for open lines of communication beyond the walls of the company was stressed. “Work with the stakeholders in the third party and make them feel like you are partnering with them,” one participant said, “be transparent, if you hear that people aren’t disclosing information, that’s a warning sign. If there is any confusion, ask questions.” And listen carefully to the answers.

The key takeaway: to build a truly effective and modern compliance program that proactively addresses the risks across the organization, a policy of open communication must be established from the top down. The concept of an ethics-based approach to compliance may seem nebulous and difficult to quantify, but it begins with fostering a level of respect across the company. And respect begins with real listening. When employee questions, feedback, concern, and complaints are welcomed, appreciated and nurtured in a respectful manner by Compliance and the C-Suite, all aspects of the compliance program, including the training, are enhanced.

Thanks for reading! I welcome your feedback.

Sean D. Murphy
PharmaCertify by NXLevel Solutions

Compliance Trends 2018: Our Point of View

PharmaCertify Team , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The festivities have ended and a shiny new year is upon us, so we are switching hats – from party to prognostication – to delve into what we see as the hot compliance topics and trends for 2018. Based on our reading of the enforcement tea leaves, several 2017 topics should remain at the forefront, but our prediction on the level of activity emanating from the OPDP has changed from last year. So if you’ve resolved to stay up-to-date on all the compliance news fit to blog this year, what better way to start than with this look ahead.

We expect funding for patient assistance organizations, which are charities that provide financial assistance to patients to help cover the cost of medications, to be a trending topic in 2018. In 2016, federal agencies started to focus on the topic and issued subpoenas related to support provided to these charities. In 2017, two companies entered into settlements with the government over that funding. The government considers the practice to be a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute because the funding offsets the co-pay of patients who participate in government healthcare programs.

Donations to charities that assist with medication costs are permitted, but assistance cannot be directed to patients who are prescribed the donating company’s medications. We would not be surprised to see the government take more of an interest in the financial relationship between the industry and charitable patient organizations this year. Training must emphasize the need to maintain appropriate independence between the company and the patient organizations it chooses to support.

In 2017, a small group of states passed laws related to price reporting, sales representative registration, and physician payment caps. That trend should continue in 2018 and the laws will most likely be focused on pricing transparency, as opposed to spend transparency, which was more common a few years ago. Expect more states to follow New Jersey’s lead and implement broader restrictions and caps on payments to healthcare professionals. The law is intended to combat the growing opioid addiction crisis.

2017 was a surprising year for the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP). After a flurry of letters at the end of 2016, we expected the agency to continue that trend into 2017, but only four letters were issued the entire year. That is a record low. Don’t expect a dramatic increase this year.

The letters that were issued last year were focused on false and misleading statements related to risk and omission of risk. Two industry settlements in 2017 included charges of failure to disclose risk in violation of the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, so emphasizing the importance of fair balance and truthful, accurate promotional statements when training sales representatives is critical.

On the global front, we would not be surprised to see an uptick in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement following the implementation of new processes that reward companies for self-disclosing potential violations and cooperating with investigations.

With that, we end this “preview” edition of the Compliance News in Review. To be automatically notified when we post new editions of the News in Review, conference highlights, or compliance training tips, just click the “follow” button on the right side of this page.

Have a safe and compliant 2018!

Compliance News in Review, August 25, 2016

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Here’s the tune we’re whistling this week: a California state senator pulls his own proposed transparency bill; an analysis of the FDA user fee programs yields interesting information; former Insys employees in court; FCPA woes at Orthofix International; and a new way for New Jersey residents to learn how much their docs received from the industry.

Summer is coming to a close all too quickly, but you still have a few weeks to cruise the boulevard, roll down the windows and belt out that favorite song at the top of your lungs. Sadly, these anthems tend to disappear at the first hint of cool temperatures, so dance on whilst you can! While you pump up the volume on your music delivery apparatus of choice, we’ll fire up a jam of own, with this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

It’s been a Cruel Summer for a California state legislator. The state senator who proposed a drug pricing transparency bill for the state has pulled the bill from consideration, saying amendments to the bill “made it more difficult for us to accomplish our fundamental goal.”

Could a recent analysis of FDA user fees stir up some Bad Blood? The analysis of FDA user fees showed that the FDA has collected over seven billion dollars in fees since 1992. These fees account for a large percentage, in some cases the majority, of funding for FDA review programs, and there is nearly $300 million dollars in unused user fees being carried by the FDA.

An interactive map shows the Blurred Lines between New Jersey physicians and the pharmaceutical industry. A state news website created an interactive map that provides details of physician and hospital payments from the pharmaceutical industry. Users search by zip code, and see payment details for hospitals and physicians in the area. The site also has an alphabetical listing of physicians and hospitals receiving payments. Data for the site was sourced from the Open Payments website.

Orthofix International allegedly got in the Danger Zone regarding improper payments made by its Brazilian subsidiary. In a recent regulatory filing, Orthofix International registered a charge of $4.6 million to settle potential FCPA charges. The company reported the potential violation to the DOJ and SEC in 2013, and has been cooperating with both agencies to resolve the matter.

If Life is a Highway, a pair of former Insys employees may be about to head down a bumpy road. A former district sales manager and former sales representative recently pleaded not guilty to charges they provided kickbacks to doctors in exchange for prescribing the company’s fentanyl drug. The two are accused of paying speaker fees to doctors for events that were held at upscale Manhattan restaurants and were social, rather than educational, in nature.

With that, it’s time for us to boogie on out of here. We hope to see you back on the dance floor for the next edition of the Compliance News in Review. Until then, stay cool, keep the summertime jams going, and stay compliant.

Compliance News in Review, August 19, 2016

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The Pfizer shareholder suit settlement, Open Payments Open Forum, Robert Callif addresses sharing truthful off-label information, a whistleblower suit, and it’s always Sunshiney in Germany in this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

Dum, dum, da, dum, dum, dum, dum. Dum dum da dum dum dum dum da dum dum dum dum. No doubt you recognized that familiar melody as “Bugler’s Dream” (a.k.a., the Olympic theme). The games in Rio are in full effect! If you’re like us, you’re suffering from sleep deprivation from all the hours of late night coverage. Fear not, we haven’t completely forgone compliance news in favor of sport. Take your mark, because we’re about to start this edition of the Compliance News in Review.

Pfizer is setting aside $486 million in “gold medals” to resolve the shareholder suit over concealing the safety risks of Bextra and Celebrex. The settlement is pending approval of the shareholders, and if approved, will end 11 years of litigation.

Open Payments is back on the track and poised for changes. In July, CMS posed several questions in the proposed 2017 Physician Fee schedule. The agency held an Open Door Forum for Open Payment stakeholders to provide responses to these questions. Much of the discussion focused on the reporting and reviewing of information related to teaching hospitals and whether to increase the number of payment categories. Other topics included pre-vetting data; the review and dispute process; and whether user accounts for physicians can be structured so they don’t expire after six months of inactivity.

A whistleblower claims Celgene isn’t playing the game fairly. A suit filed by a former company sales rep claims the company made donations in order to drive product sales. The suit claims the company made donations and then worked with the charities to assure that the majority of the funds were directed to patients who were using Celgene drugs. Celgene says the claims are baseless and the federal rules regarding donations were followed.

FDA chief Robert Califf spent time hurdling the issue of sharing of truthful off-label information at the recent BIO conference. In his remarks, Mr. Califf said scientifically supported information worth sharing should be on the product’s label, and that there is a responsibility to share use information gleaned through the clinical trial process and it’s reasonable to expect that information to be part of the product’s label. He noted that publicly available information that is not part of the label is trickier, and that the agency was “working on it.”

The score from the German judge is…575 million. According to the German news magazine Spiegel, payments made to German HCPs and HCOs totaled 575 million euro in 2015. The country made the data public in a searchable database following a suggestion by EFPIA. The magazine noted problems with the data being incomplete and inaccurate, and only 75% of pharmaceutical companies were represented. It called for the German government to consider legislation similar to the Sunshine Act in order to implement true transparency.

Well, we need to get back to the thousands of hours of streaming coverage – bring on the table tennis – so we’ll end this edition of the Compliance News in Review here. Enjoy the rest of the Games everyone, and stay compliant.

Excel for Tracking Training? Been There, Done That, and Sadly, I Have the T-Shirt.

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As someone who worked in compliance for a small life sciences company, I like to share the problems and pitfalls I experienced over the years, in the hope of saving others from the same fate. Today, we touch on the subject of Learning Management Systems and in particular, my hard-learned lesson about trying to use Microsoft Excel for some LMS functions. I like Excel as a software program overall. And, if you work in training, it may seem like a logical choice for measuring metrics. It’s not. If your company doesn’t have an enterprise-wide LMS in place, or if a particular group of learners (e.g., third-party vendors) doesn’t have access to your internal LMS, I strongly recommend using a hosted or cloud-based LMS  rather than relying on Excel to handle the tracking and reporting.

Is an LMS a Better Option?

The obvious and primary limitation of using Excel is you still need to find a way to host and deploy the training. Even when used solely for the purposes of tracking and reporting, it can be burdensome, error-prone, and time-consuming. At a minimum, you need to enter all of the learner-related data, as well as the list of courses assigned to each learner, and the dates the courses were deployed and completed. Then there’s the on-going need to keep your learners updated with reminders that training is due, and the work necessary to pull metrics from all the data. Using Excel is a manual process, which opens the door for mistakes and those mistakes, are hard to catch when you’re pouring over hundreds of lines of data.

Using a hosted or cloud-based LMS helps automate those processes, greatly improves accuracy, and lightens the burden of the on-going work. While some upfront work is necessary as an administrator, the LMS itself does most of the heavy lifting. Deployment of the training and management of the completion records are handled by the LMS, freeing you from developing formulas and creating your own reports. In fact, you’re likely to get far more insight from the reports and metrics that are standard with most hosted and cloud-based services than you’d ever be able to pull from Excel. And the best part – all of this comes with the ability to host and deploy the training.

Of course, a hosted LMS solution isn’t the panacea to all of your workload challenges. You may not be able to customize the functionality of the LMS, and depending on what service you choose, you may or may not be able to manage your classroom learning with the service. Then, of course, there’s the big elephant in the room, the cost. Reconciling the budget when you think you can manage with the software you already have in house may seem difficult, especially for small to mid-size companies. However, when you factor in the time spent by managing all the tasks manually, the cost may not seem so overwhelming.

What About the Budget?

A number of cost-effective options are available. For example, our PharmaCertify Access™ LMS offers an affordable way for small to mid-size (and even larger) clients to host and track online training, whether it’s developed by us, another vendor, or in-house by our client.

Looking back on that Excel experience, I regret not giving more than a fleeting thought to using a hosted LMS, even though I only had a few hundred learners to manage. I’m sure an LMS would have provided better insight into the impact the training had on the audience, and would have allowed me to dedicate more time and resources to building an even better compliance training curriculum.

Thanks for reading, and stay compliant!

Lauren Barnett
Compliance Content Specialist
PharmaCertify™ by NXLevel Solution