Lima, Peru – Christopher L. White, senior executive vice president and general counsel of AdvaMed (the Advanced Medical Technology Association), issued the following statement following the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Ethics for Small- and Medium-Sized Companies Forum:

“We are delighted that leaders of over 150 public, private and civil society organizations attending the 2016 APEC Business Ethics for Small- And Medium-Sized Companies Forum on Sept. 5-6 in Lima called for working with third-party sales and marketing intermediaries (SMIs) to strengthen ethical business practices, expanding on the APEC Kuala Lumpur Principles for Medical Device Sector Codes of Business Ethics that AdvaMed helped to create in 2010.

“Ethical principles that guide medtech industry interactions with health care providers are critical to ensuring patient access to life-saving innovations and integrity in the medical decision-making process. Joint industry-SMI work to develop ethical business practices will further instill patient confidence that the treatments they receive are in their best interests.      

“AdvaMed has a long-standing commitment to advance ethical arrangements among medical device manufacturers and the distributors and intermediaries operating on companies’ behalf in overseas markets. (See AdvaMed’s distributor guidance webpage here.)

“Since 2010, AdvaMed has been honored to help advance the APEC Business Ethics Initiative. Together with our many partners, including the U.S. Department of Commerce, we are developing and facilitating propagation of high-standard codes of ethics, which now extend to 24 device and diagnostic industry associations across 17 economies. These new codes collectively represent higher standards of ethics being applied to over 11,000 enterprises, more than 9,000 of which are small- and medium-sized companies.

“Improving ethical business practices – through development and implementation of high-standard codes of ethics and public-private partnerships – is vital to U.S. medtech enterprises that seek a fair competitive environment. This is particularly important to small- and medium-sized companies, which make up the majority of our member companies.

“AdvaMed also welcomes the release of the Report on Code of Ethics Implementation by APEC Medical Device Industry Associations, 2012-2016, the initiative’s first public assessment of progress to-date by industry associations. We remain committed to full implementation of the ‘Nanjing Declaration to Promote Ethical Business Environments in the Medical Device and Biopharmaceutical Sectors (2014-2020)’ and will continue to vigorously support this crucial collective action.

“Finally, AdvaMed was pleased to partner with the Asociación Nacional de Emprasarios de Colombia (ANDI) to convene a high-level roundtable on Sept. 7 to explore formation of a new coalition dedicated to driving progress on business ethics for the medical device sector across the Western hemisphere.

“By strengthening implementation of high-standard codes of ethics across the Western hemisphere, AdvaMed seeks to foster an environment conducive to ethical collaborations and innovation, ensuring that more patients have access to the most advanced medical technology that is appropriate for them. This effort will benefit from our collective experience through APEC’s work.”