A Common Understanding 2025

9.Multi-partner considerations

Collaborative working projects between a single healthcare organisation and a single pharmaceutical company are common. Less common but still possible are cross-sector projects involving more than one healthcare organisation and/or more than one pharmaceutical company.

Cross-sector projects between one or more healthcare organisation and one or more pharmaceutical company are often more complex. This is because each individual organisation has its own governance and approvals processes, which can lengthen the timelines for project set-up and implementation.

In addition, ABPI members are actual or potential competitors in certain therapy areas and are therefore subject to stringent competition law safeguards that must also be reflected in any agreement on working together. A shared desire to improve patient outcomes through a collaboration will not justify anticompetitive conduct, such as the illegal exchange of sensitive information between competitors or other types of collusive practices.

There should be a lead contracting party, identified by job role, in each sector in a cross-sector project where there are multiple healthcare organisations or to have an individual contract with each organisation involved.

Where there is more than one contracting party on each side of the cross-sector project, steps should be taken to understand the differing legislative competence, governance processes and timelines involved.

Given that the legal risk and opportunities for error are higher when multiple organisations are involved in the same collaboration, it is best to agree rules of engagement upfront, which can be recorded in the agreement. Such rules should set out clear governance principles, such as:

• All project meetings will only take place if at least one representative of each party can attend
• Minutes of all meetings will be taken, approved by all participants, and kept on record for an agreed period after the completion of the project
• All project participants will receive a briefing on competition law rules and will be asked to sign a competition compliance and non-disclosure statement.

If the nature of the project would require specific discussion on topics of the utmost sensitivity such as costs, patient information, potential tendering opportunities, R&D activities etc., the parties should consider having a specialist competition lawyer attend the meetings.