The Sustainable Development Goals highlight the importance of good governance in all sectors, including health, for the achievement of development goals, including universal health coverage. An important component of good governance is effectively preventing and managing conflicts of interest. Improving conflict of interest prevention and management in public pharmaceutical decision-making committees requires strategies that strengthen (1) policy and implementation mechanisms and (2) prevention and management processes and procedures. The principles of proportionality, transparency, accountability, and fairness are important for conflict of interest policies and practices.
The new how-to guide examines relevant definitions and the nature of conflicts of interest in the context of the public pharmaceutical sector. It explains the need for preventing and mitigating the impact of conflicts of interest in public pharmaceutical-sector committee and agency decision-making processes and outlines gaps and challenges around conflict of interest policy and practice. The guide proposes options for guiding principles and strategies for preventing and managing conflicts of interest and uses selected country experiences to provide managers and others with examples for improving conflict of interest management in their own settings.