Management of conflicts of interest

The Danish Medicines Agency is governed by a clear set of impartiality rules in its daily processing and review of cases. The rules aim to avoid conflicts of interest and to ensure the licensing, control and monitoring of medicines take place on factual grounds. The impartiality rules are rooted firmly in both the Danish Public Administration Act and the Danish Medicines Act. Read on to learn what it means in practice for the employees of the Danish Medicines Agency. 

The impartiality rules in practice

Employees in the Danish Medicines Agency cannot have financial and/or personal interests in the pharmaceutical and/or medical device industry that could affect their impartiality. This also applies to members of committees and councils who offer advice to the Danish Medicines Agency.

In supplement to the agency's own impartiality rules, the Danish Medicines Agency also follows the rules of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) when working with EMA tasks.

Previous positions

If an employee whose role is to inspect pharmaceutical companies has previously been employed in a pharmaceutical company, he or she is not allowed to inspect that company in the first 3 years after leaving that company.

Shareholdings

• On 4 July 2019, new rules were introduced in the Danish Medicines Agency, which mean that new emplotees are not allowed to own shares or the like in pharmaceutical and/or medical device companies. Currently employees must divest any shares or the like within two years after they have been given notice. If an employee inherits shares in a pharmaceutical and/or medical device company, he or she must, as a rule, divest any such holdings within one year, after he or she has been granted the right to depose of the shares. The individual in question cannot participate in the review of or make decisions in cases related to the concerned pharmaceutical and/or medical device company before the holdings have been divested.
• Employees of the Danish Medicines Agency who own shares worth more than DKK 100,000 in companies other than pharmaceutical and/or medical device companies will be considered to have a conflicting interest towards these companies. Consequently, they cannot participate in the review of or make decisions in cases related to these companies. Employees who own shares worth less than DKK 100,000 cannot participate in the review of or make decisions in cases that may have a significant financial impact on the company concerned. In cases with no significant financial impact on the company, it will be decided on a case-by-case basis if the employee has a conflicting interest.
• If an employee’s close family member or other closely related person own shares worth more than DKK 100,000 in a pharmaceutical and or /medical device company, the employee will generally be considered to have a conflicting interest towards the company and therefore cannot participate in the review of or make decisions in cases related to that company. If a close family member of the employee owns shares worth less than DKK 100,000 in a pharmaceutical and or /medical device company, he or she will generally not be considered to have a conflicting interest. However, an assessment must always be made in the specific case to see if there are other circumstances leading to a different outcome.

Side job

Employees are allowed to undertake secondary employment alongside their principal job at the Danish Medicines Agency. However, secondary employment must not cause a potential conflict of interest with the duties performed for the Danish Medicines Agency.