The French Ministry of Health has published the French Sunshine Act requiring all companies in the healthcare sector to declare contracts or gifts worth €10 or more (including tax). The new law issued on May 21 has been greeted by the biotech industry with derision and even outright hostility. The Bertrand law, so-called for former health minister Xavier Bertrand, came in the wake of the scandal over the diabetes drug Mediator (benfluorex), made by the Suresnes-based Servier, alleged to have caused hundreds of deaths before being withdrawn in November 2009. The new transparency requirements are aimed at restoring public confidence in France's drug regulatory body, by exposing financial ties between drug firms and doctors or experts. Contracts must be approved in advance by professional supervisory bodies for doctors and pharmacists, and all will ultimately be posted on a single website. “Implementation will involve an enormous bureaucratic machine,” says Renaud Vaillant, CEO of Theravectys, a vaccine developer located on the outskirts of Paris. “The intention is good, but no one is happy with the result,” he adds. And the €10 ($12.8) threshold “is a big mistake. No expert will be influenced for little more than the price of a cup of coffee and a couple of croissants.” Failure to comply will result in fines of up to €30,000 ($38,500). “Controls already exist in France,” says Judith Greciet, CEO of BioAlliance Pharma in Paris, and the new rules will represent a hefty workload for a firm like hers, where about two-thirds of the 50-plus employees are researchers, and administration is pared to a minimum. But the move is a sign of the times, as other European countries are also trying to crack down on conflicts of interest, notes Alexandre Regniault, a partner in the Simmons & Simmons law firm in Paris. The Netherlands, too, implemented a Central Transparency Register for the healthcare industry, known as the Dutch Sunshine Act, in January. In the UK, the Ethical Standards in Health and Life Sciences Group, a gathering of 20 healthcare organizations, is working on the idea, says Regniault. “But the burden on life sciences companies is already considerable, and minor variations in the obligations imposed by different countries is going to be extremely tiresome. The question should really be taken up at a European level,” he adds.