Asia-Pacific device ethics code
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which aims to facilitate economic growth and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, announces efforts to develop a code of business ethics for the medical device sector in the area. The effort stems from a recent APEC workshop on device sector business ethics, held in Japan. Trade group AdvaMed endorses the efforts in an Oct. 8 statement, saying that device firms looking to grow in the Asia-Pacific region currently are "faced with the lack of consistent, predictable and transparent legal and regulatory frameworks in the area of business ethics." The code in development "is an important step forward in our mission to harmonize business ethics globally," said AdvaMed Chairman and Abbott Medical Optics President James Mazzo. AdvaMed and Chinese device makers agreed to harmonize their codes of ethics in September (1"The Gray Sheet" Sept. 20, 2010)