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Eucomed receives fund of USD 846.000 from the Siemens Integrity Initiative to promote good compliance procedures in the Middle East & North Africa region

Posted on 11.03.2014

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The project will run in partnership with the Middle East medical devices & diagnostics trade association, MECOMED, which is Eucomed’s associate member and will establish the Conference Vetting System (CVS) in the geographic region covered by MECOMED[1].

The aim of the project, which will run in 2015 to 2017, is to assess third-party educational conferences taking place in the MENA region and to provide stakeholders with clear guidance on whether their financial support to passive attendance of Healthcare Professionals in such conferences is in compliance with the Eucomed Code of Ethical Business Practice.

A Compliance Officer for the Middle East will be appointed and will work under the supervision of the Eucomed Compliance Panel and the Compliance Officer for Europe. The recruitment procedure for the Compliance Officer in the Middle East is expected to be finalised before the end of this semester and the system is anticipated to be operational during the second semester of 2015.

About the Siemens Integrity Initiative

The Siemens Integrity Initiative is part of the comprehensive settlement between The World Bank Group and Siemens AG. It was launched in 2009 with over US $ 100 million to be allocated to organizations and project fighting corruption and fraud through Collective Action, education and training.

About the Conference Vetting System (CVS)

The Conference Vetting System is a compliance initiative in the healthcare industry.  Launched at the beginning of 2012, this independently managed and centralised decision-making system assesses industry’s sponsorship of Healthcare Professionals to attend third-party medical education conferences. The decisions rendered under CVS by the Compliance Officer are binding on Eucomed members. This means that members of Eucomed and of national associations affiliated with Eucomed may not directly sponsor or cover expenses of Healthcare Professionals to attend a third-party conference which is found to be not compliant.

 

About Eucomed and MedTech Europe

Eucomed was the European medical technology industry association. In 2017 became MedTech Europe. 

MedTech Europe represents directly and indirectly 25,000 designers, manufacturers and suppliers of medical technology used in the diagnosis, prevention, treatment and amelioration of disease and disability. Small and medium-sized companies make up more than 95% of this sector. The market size is estimated at roughly € 100 billion. The industry employs more than 575,000 highly skilled workers.

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[1] Currently, MECOMED covers the following countries: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Iran, and Pakistan.