Pharmacists and other healthcare professionals could be asked to publicly declare any payments they receive from pharmaceutical companies under proposals to improve transparency between the two industries.

In an effort to address "increasingly pressing" concerns over transparency and meet European law, a group of 20 health organisations including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has recommended creating a public website with details of payments between healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical companies.

The payments could include fees for consultancy services, sponsorship to attend meetings and research and development payments

A central system should list payments made by all manufacturers, the Ethical Standards in Health and Life Sciences Group (ESHSG) suggested in a consultation announced on Tuesday (January 29), while healthcare professionals should play a "proactive role" in validating and submitting the financial information.

Pharmacy bodies have recommended creating a public website with details of payments between health professionals and pharmaceutical companies	More on manufacturing Johnson & Johnson signs first reduced wholesaler       deal for OTC ABPI: NHS must ramp up investment in innovative       medicines John D'Arcy: Let's have a look at pharmacy, Leveson
	This collaborative approach would be the best way of complying with European law, the group said, which will require manufacturers to disclose all their financial relationships with health providers by 2015.

Creating a public website would also help to dispel "concerns around the ethics and transparency of such relationships", the ESHSG added.

"Some stakeholders, including sections of the media, view such collaborations with scepticism despite both industry and professional bodies having guidelines in place to ensure that interactions are ethical, transparent and of benefit to the NHS and, ultimately, patients," it said.

The ESHSG said manufacturers were frequently receiving media requests for details of payments made to healthcare professionals. And it forecast a rise in these requests, as clinicians adopted a wider commissioning role in the new NHS and the public demanded greater transparency.

"If we fail to keep up with such expectations, there is a significant risk that self-regulation will be replaced by potentially restrictive regulation. This has been the experience elsewhere in the world," the ESHSG warned.

ESHSG co-chair and ABPI president Deepak Khanna said creating a transparent payment system would mark "an evolution in the relationship between commercial organisations and healthcare professionals".

"Our view is that the co-creation of a system to declare payments is the right course of action and that should be developed and agreed jointly by the relevant stakeholder groups," he said.

The consultation will run from this week for three months.