[1] It is the British equivalent of America's PhRMA; however, the member companies research, develop, manufacture and supply medicines prescribed for the National Health Service.

Members fall into three categories: The ABPI represents the views of the research-based sector of the pharmaceutical industry to government and decision makers in the UK, i.e. is a lobbying organization.

The Code sets standards for the promotion of medicines to health professionals and other relevant decision makers in the UK.

[5] It is regularly updated and reviewed in consultation with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the British Medical Association (BMA), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

[6] Ben Goldacre criticised the pharmaceutical industry in his 2012 book Bad Pharma as testing itself what it manufactures in "poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques that are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments".