Drug-company representatives won’t be showering doctors with pens and other product-endorsing paraphernalia under a revised code of conduct approved by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Associated Press reported today.

The association, which represents pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, will ban logo-bearing knickknacks under revised rules that will take effect on January 1.

Sales representatives will be barred from taking a doctor out for a restaurant meal or a game of golf, but they will be permitted to offer an occasional modest meal in a health professional’s office “in conjunction with informational presentations.”

Critics of drug companies’ marketing practices believe that doctors and medical residents who receive freebies are more likely to prescribe more expensive, and potentially less effective, medications.

Billy Tauzin, president of the pharmaceutical association, thinks that’s unlikely.

“I don’t think you’ll find a physician who will acknowledge that the gift of a pen or a cup with a company’s name on it influences their prescribing patterns,” he told the AP. “But there are people who believe that, and as long as that’s a perception out there, we felt we ought to end that.” —Katherine Mangan