Welcome to AKG e.V.
As a self-regulatory body of the pharmaceutical industry, the AKG supports its member companies in ensuring that they are always fair in their cooperation with healthcare professionals and patient organizations.
Cooperation in the healthcare sector is an essential basis for the proper organization of care. They ensure time and again that medical practice remains science-oriented and pharmaceutical research remains practice-oriented, thus contributing to the highest possible efficiency of our constantly evolving healthcare system for the benefit of patients. However, these collaborations must be transparent.
The collaboration between pharmaceutical companies and medical professionals and patient organizations is subject to ethical rules to which the public is very sensitive. It must allow for and withstand critical scrutiny under all circumstances.
Please visit our website www.ak-gesundheitswesen.de to learn more about our organization and the benefits of membership. We look forward to welcoming you to our dedicated community.
With best regards,
Christoph Harras-Wolff
1st Chairman
Management
Since March 2024, Elisabeth Engels has been the new Managing Director of AKG e.V. She succeeds Kai Christian Bleicken, who has successfully built up and managed the office since the association was founded in 2007.
Elisabeth Engels is a lawyer and has been familiar with the topic of compliance since the beginning of her professional career. Even before she started working in member support for the AKG office in 2017, she initially worked as a compliance officer for a member company and later as a freelance consultant and speaker for the association.
In recent years, she has continuously developed the training and event sector and expanded it to meet the needs of the member companies.
In her new role, she will continue to devote herself intensively to the commitment to a sustainable compliance culture and the service-oriented work of the AKG e.V., true to the emblematic credo “prevention before sanction”.
Elisabeth Engels
Managing Director / Lawyer
History of AKG e.V.
The AKG was founded in November 2007 and has since become the largest organization for voluntary self-regulation in the pharmaceutical industry. The founding of the AKG can be traced back to an initiative by predominantly entrepreneur-led pharmaceutical manufacturers organized in the ‘Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie (BPI)’ (Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry).
As a self-regulatory body in the pharmaceutical industry, the AKG assists its members in ensuring transparent and fair corporate behavior in the collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and medical professionals.
The foundational principles of the AKG’s activities are based on the ‘Code of Conduct for Cooperation between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Medical Professionals’ and the ‘Patient Code of Conduct.’
These are fundamentally rooted in the ‘Joint Position on the Criminal Assessment of Cooperation between Industry, Medical Institutions, and their Employees’ published in 2000 and the ‘Guidelines for Cooperation between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Physicians’ issued by the leading associations of the German pharmaceutical industry in 2003.
The process of internal self-regulation includes counseling, training, and the sanctioning of internal violations against the AKG Code of Conduct or Patient Code by the member companies and those associated companies that have expressly acknowledged the codes as binding through a special written declaration.
read more
read less
Greeting AKG GM 2025
Greeting AKG GM 2023
Greeting AKG GM 2022
Greeting AKG GM 2019
In his political greeting to mark the 10th anniversary of the AKG in front of the numerous representatives of member companies and guests, Kauder emphasized that ten years ago, compliance and its importance for the pharmaceutical industry still led a rather shadowy existence. The fact that this is completely different today is largely thanks to the AKG. Without naming the automotive industry in particular, Kauder emphasized the AKG’s role model function for other industries as well. Mutual trust and the principle of subsidiarity are important here.
Volker Kauder, former Member of the German Bundestag – Statement from April 24, 2018
Advantages for members
AK-Gesundheitswesen e.V. is a renowned organisation that is passionately committed to high-quality healthcare.
With a strong network of professionals from different areas of healthcare, we promote the exchange of knowledge, the development of innovative solutions and active participation in shaping the future of the industry. Our focus is on political advocacy work, the promotion of training opportunities and a commitment to sustainable improvement in healthcare.
Training courses & seminars
Training courses & seminars
Comprehensive range of training courses through seminars with renowned experts. The seminar topics are aligned with the current compliance and legal topics that are important for companies. (e.g. anti-corruption laws, GDPR, HWG etc.).
Customized in-house trainings
Customized in-house trainings
In-house training for members is tailored to the specific needs of each company, with individual emphasis on key areas.
Regular compliance officer meetings
Regular compliance officer meetings
Regular compliance officer meetings (in compliance with antitrust regulations) as an information forum with keynote speeches on current topics of practical relevance offer discussion opportunities and a communication platform for participants.
Ad-hoc telephone and e-mail advice
Ad-hoc telephone and e-mail advice
Ad-hoc advice by telephone and e-mail as well as directional support for project work. Recommendation of a specialist/lawyer if required. Particularly important for companies that do not have a (local) compliance contact person/department.
Model contracts
Model contracts
Members benefit from model contracts for all relevant forms of cooperation. Regular newsletters
Regular newsletters
Regular newsletters
Regular newsletters on current topics of interest and relevance to the company, some of which go beyond the specific compliance topics and are important for the company’s work.
Publication of useful work aids
Publication of useful work aids
- – AKG guide “At a glance” – the new AKG guide app and a website with identical content – as a mindset compass
- – AKG remuneration study as a standardised orientation aid for determining the level of speaker and consultant fees
- – EU matrix as a quick overview of the relevant legal requirements of other European countries.
Networking with experts
Networking with experts
Experts from science and practice provide you with helpful information to achieve your goals.
Commissioning of specialised studies and publications
Commissioning of specialised studies and publications
We support our member companies in applying the rules by providing expert advice on current legislative initiatives
Forward-looking handling of current topics
Forward-looking handling of current topics
Training and information events help you learn more about topics relevant to health policy and the Code.
With your Code of Conduct, you have developed an efficient toolbox that supports your members in dealing with medical professionals in the most transparent and fair way possible. Your procedure of internal self-regulation creates trust and thus complements the tried and tested state supervisory options because it goes beyond sanctions and generates insight. This makes you both a beacon and a role model.
Thorsten Frei, Member of the German Bundestag – Statement from April 2020
And, of course, we have to realise that certain supposed “self-evident truths”, which were apparently still commonplace between the pharmaceutical industry and medical professionals some time ago, no longer work in this way today. It is not least thanks to the AKG and its activities that these times are finally a thing of the past. And that is why I am very pleased to come to you today to thank you personally for your commitment to generally binding ethical values in the field of tension between research, innovation and profit in the healthcare sector. In my view, the work of the AKG is exemplary in this respect.
Dr Marie Strack-Zimmermann Member of the German Bundestag – Statement of 25 April 2017
Services of the AKG e.V.
AK-Gesundheitswesen e.V. is a renowned organisation that is passionately committed to high-quality healthcare.
With a strong network of professionals from different areas of healthcare, we promote the exchange of knowledge, the development of innovative solutions and active participation in shaping the future of the industry. Our focus is on political advocacy work, the promotion of training opportunities and a commitment to sustainable improvement in healthcare.
Counselling services
Counselling services
The AKG offers a comprehensive range of advice from competent experts. We answer legal questions about our codes by e-mail or telephone at short notice.
We are happy to help you!
Guide app
Guide app
The guide is an alphabetically sorted index of keywords and provides the reader with brief, easy-to-understand answers to the key questions about our codes.
AKG Healthcare Compliance Seal
AKG Healthcare Compliance Seal
Creating trust with the certificate for fair and transparent cooperation in the healthcare sector – the seal verifies and certifies effective compliance management.
Model contracts
Model contracts
The AKG model contracts offer companies a working aid and reflect the legal situation applicable at the time of publication. The templates serve as an individual basis in practice.
Our events
Event overview
As part of our event service, we continue to offer you the opportunity to learn more about specialised topics and learn from selected experts. We would like to draw your attention to exciting events again.
Healthcare compliance training
Training on current compliance requirements for our member companies. The events are very well attended and are enthusiastically received by the participants from our member companies. These are mainly employees of the internal and external services.
Online training
With this training tool, the AKG can offer its member companies a useful supplement to classroom training. Basic compliance knowledge can thus be made accessible to a large group of users, such as the sales force, quickly, efficiently and sustainably. In the meantime, 700 licences/certificates have been issued since the online training was introduced.
Our offer
- Training courses and seminars
- Customised in-house training courses
- Regular compliance officer meetings
- Ad hoc advice by telephone and e-mail
- Model contracts
- Regular newsletters
- Publication of useful work aids
Elisabeth Engels
Managing Director / Lawyer
There is no doubt that the AKG represents a model that is successful without any political influence. With its work, the AKG shows that successful prevention may not even require political regulation.
Dr Carsten Linnemann, Member of the German Bundestag – Statement from 26 April 2016
Your contact person
Contact us and become part of the AK-Gesundheitswesen e.V.! Immerse yourself in a network of experts. We would be happy to make you an offer for your company’s membership.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Katharina Böhme
Katharina Böhme
Assistent