Australia’s leading drug industry lobby group, Medicines Australia, is canvassing options on how to counter what it describes as “challenges” to its “credibility and trust.” The move comes after new rules were introduced making it mandatory for drug companies to publicly disclose details of their involvement in meetings and conferences for doctors (BMJ 2008;336:742; doi: 10.1136/bmj.39535.488299.DB).

The lobby group’s annual one day “members only” conference included presentations from an ethicist on “ethical conduct,” a public relations adviser on “shaping a new image,” and a market researcher on “moral responsibility and corporate reputation.”

In the conference programme the group’s chief executive, Ian Chalmers, …