1. Full membership is open to companies, universities and technical colleges that are active in the fields of pharmaceuticals or healthcare, provided that they meet the following preconditions:

a) The company must regularly conduct multinational market research and / or business monitoring, and exercise an international market-research function;

b) The company must furthermore conduct medical research and development on a regular basis in the pharmaceutical, medical-technology or diagnostic fields, or be involved in the international marketing of products in these fields.

c) The university or technical-college institution must be active (and have a professorship) in the pharmaceuticals field or in the development of medical equipment and diagnostic procedures or in market research in the healthcare field.

Provided that the aforementioned conditions are met, the ownership of the said companies need not necessarily affect membership. It is thus possible for more than one full member to have the same owner.

2. The Board of the Association (see Article 7 infra) considers applications for membership as soon as the applicant has submitted all the requisite documentation demonstrating that it fulfils the aforementioned admission criteria. The application will be processed at the next meeting of the Board of the Association. Provided that all the aforementioned preconditions have been met, the application is approved, membership confirmed and full members notified. Confirmation of membership can be revoked with the consent of at least one third of existing full members within four weeks of the date of election to membership.

3. Full members pay an annual membership contribution. The amount of the membership contribution is fixed at the annual meeting of the Association (see Article 6 infra). Membership commences when the annual membership contribution is paid. Membership is automatically renewed after one year unless there is an exceptional case within the meaning of Article 3 nos. 6 and 7.

4. Membership entails the responsibility to cooperate in matters related to market research and business monitoring. Furthermore individual members are expected to play an active part in at least one working group, committee or national group, or on the Board.

5. Art. 75a of the Civil Code provides that only the assets of the Association are liable for its debts. Personal liability on the part of individual members is limited solely to their membership contributions.

6. Repeated non-observance of the statutes, conduct contrary to the objectives of the Association or the loss of any of the membership qualifications as set out in Art. 3 no. 1 supra may lead to exclusion from the Association and to loss of membership. Such exclusion must be approved by at least two thirds of the full members at a meeting of the Association.

7. Individual members wishing to resign from the Association must give six months' notice in writing of their intention to do so. Notice must be submitted to the President of the Association. Resignation takes effect at the end of the relevant fiscal year.

Membership fee is 4000 CHF.  membership year runs from 1 October to 30 September the following year.

Information required to support the application: