GlaxoSmithKline, a British drug company, announced on Monday that it will no longer pay doctors to promote its products — a controversial practice in the pharmaceutical industry that health reform advocates have been fighting to end for years. Glaxo is the first major drug company to agree to shift its policy in this area, a move that may help pressure its competitors to follow suit.

The company’s decision comes just a year before drug manufacturers will be required to disclose these type of payments under one of the provisions in Obamacare. Beginning next September, data on the financial compensation that physicians receive from Big Pharma companies will become publicly available in a searchable database.

It’s hard to look like an innovator when your company has paid a $3 billion fine in the U.S. and is accused of paying another half-billion dollars in bribes to China. But GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Chief Executive Officer Andrew Witty is building on a long-term strategy with the move he announced on Tuesday to stop paying staffers for hitting sales targets and doctors for promoting its drugs.

The move reflects Witty’s ongoing battle to modernize the British drugmaker, lower discovery costs, and create what he calls “values-based decision-making” that gets beyond hawking the latest blockbuster.