Kerman University of Medical Sciences International Journal of Health Policy and Management 2322-5939 7 6 2018 06 01 Sunshine Policies and Murky Shadows in Europe: Disclosure of Pharmaceutical Industry Payments to Health Professionals in Nine European Countries 504 509 3478 10.15171/ijhpm.2018.20 EN Alice Fabbri Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia 0000-0001-8413-0440 Ancel.la Santos Health Action International, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Signe Mezinska Faculty of Medicine and Institute of Clinical and Preventive Medicine, University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia Shai Mulinari Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden 0000-0001-8773-9796 Barbara Mintzes Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Pharmacy, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia Journal Article 2017 10 30 <span class="fontstyle0">Relationships between health professionals and pharmaceutical manufacturers can unduly influence clinical practice. These relationships are the focus of global transparency efforts, including in Europe. We conducted a descriptive content analysis of the transparency provisions implemented by February 2017 in nine European Union (EU) countries concerning payments to health professionals, with duplicate independent coding of all data. Using an author-generated, semi-structured questionnaire, we collected information from each disclosure policy/code on: target industries, categories of healthcare professionals covered, scope of payments included, location and searchability of the disclosed data. Our analysis shows that although important improvements have been put in place in the past few years, significant gaps remain in disclosure requirements and their implementation. The situation differs substantially from country to country and the most striking differences are between governmental and self-regulatory approaches, especially with regard to the comprehensiveness of the disclosed data. In many cases, individuals can still opt out and reporting is incomplete, with common influential gifts such as food and drink excluded. Finally, in several countries data are only available as separate PDFs from companies, thus making the payment reports difficult to access and analyse. In order to overcome these gaps, minimum standards for disclosures should be implemented across Europe. All payments to healthcare professionals and organizations should be included, all health-related industries should be required to submit reports, and usability of disclosed data should be guaranteed.</span> https://www.ijhpm.com/article_3478_b071cfa81605a94ad80cfa2bbc747448.pdf