The pharmaceutical industry and psychiatry: can we work in partnership?

Commercial partnership with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector is now explicit NHS policy. Health professionals have often overlooked the need for training, development and appraisal of their work with the industry. Industry has separated medical research functions from their sales and marketing functions and these are regulated separately. Both, however, cross the lifecycle of drug development and can be met together. Health professionals are relatively ignorant in regard to the roles and responsibilities of industry personnel and their regulatory constraints. This lack of knowledge, together with misunderstanding about the industry mission, contributes to a lack of confidence in the probity of working with industry. Finding projects of common value, being clear about our role, training with peer discussion and recording our work within our appraisal portfolio will go some way to securing the partnership, to the ultimate benefit of service users. An industry led by thoughtful, trained health professional experts in NHS partnership is preferable to an industry driven by marketing supported by inexpert, isolated professional advice.