The Medical Council should consider compiling a register of any "significant benefits" which medical practitioners receive from pharmaceutical companies to address the risk of potential conflicts of interest, an Oireachtas report to be published today will recommend.
These benefits would include "anything involving an overnight stay or long-distance travel", while professionals writing articles or presenting lectures should be required to indicate any financial support received from commercial sources.
While recognising the "valuable role" which pharmaceuticals have played in the development of modern medicine, the report into the adverse side effects of pharmaceuticals also labels as "unhealthy" the influence of the pharmaceutical industry and the persuasiveness of its promotion of its products.
This contributes to a "generally excessive" reliance on drug therapies by the professions and the public.
It also suggests that the high incidence of prescribing errors indicates that some professionals are not keeping up with "fast moving" developments in the pharmacological education field.
Elsewhere, it recommends establishing a Patient Safety Agency and highlights concerns about the role of the Irish Medicines Board (IMB).
This arises in part from how it is funded through fees for services to drug companies, meaning it tends to put pharmaceutical companies in the position of "clients of the IMB".
"This is not an ideal position for an agency concerned with public safety," it states.
The report, seen by The Irish Times, also notes suggestions that an agency which licenses drugs is likely to be compromised to some degree if the drugs subsequently turn out to be "problematic".
It suggests there could be merit in "splitting" the IMB into two, with one agency dealing with licensing and a second with post- marketing surveillance.
This second agency would also improve on the current low levels of reporting the adverse side effects of drugs in Ireland. Either the IMB or the new agency could also fund independent "phase 4" studies, where necessary, to assess the impact of new drugs on the target population, rather than drug companies as is often the case at the moment.
While the report stresses that it is not assigning "malicious intent" to industry personnel, it states that the pressures on the industry impel it to "excessive" promotion. It also notes concerns that psychiatric drugs may tend to be prescribed "for want of an alternative".
"It is in the absence of a full range of counselling and psychotherapy services that many medicines, intended for moderate to severe psychiatric disorders, are prescribed for minor symptoms," it warns.
The report was compiled by a cross-party sub-committee of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, which is chaired by Paudge Connolly TD (Ind). It is due to be launched today.
In its conclusions, the report also suggests that the overall regulatory regime in Ireland, as well as pharmacological training, needs to be strengthened and improved.
The sub-committee also expresses concerns about drugs companies' sponsorship of health messages aimed at specific clinical conditions.
Although these messages can have a positive effect on public awareness, and while companies do not promote individual products, "the underlying effect may be to promote favourable attitudes of the public towards drug therapies", it states.
The report recommends that the Department of Health, in consultation, should "endeavour to ensure that these messages encompass information on non-drug therapies".
Referring to a recent British House of Commons report which recommended establishing a register of significant benefits obtained by medical practitioners from drug companies, the report states that this is "worth consideration in Ireland".
Commenting on the report's findings, committee chairman Paudge Connolly called for more extensive research on the issues it raised. "We're only scratching at the surface," he said. "These issues are of huge concern."