MINNEAPOLIS, July 10, 2008—The main pharmaceutical trade association has revised its code of conduct, banning gifts to doctors such as pens, mugs and restaurant meals.

Drugmakers can still pay physicians speaking and consulting fees. And they will be allowed to provide "occasional meals'' in offices of health-care professionals ``in conjunction with informational presentations,'' the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America decided.

The Washington-based lobbyist group also issued more detailed standards on continuing education and disclosure of speaking or consulting fees.

Relations between drug companies and doctors, including medical researchers, have come under scrutiny in Congress. Senator Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, criticized payments from Johnson & Johnson and Eli Lilly & Co. to Harvard Medical School doctors who helped pioneer the use of psychiatric drugs in children.

Minnesota Medicine devoted a cover story to the topic of pharmaceutical freebies in the April 2008 issue.

The new code will go into effect in January of 2009.