GlaxoSmithKline is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. They are headquartered in London but they sell their products all over the world. In 2012, GSK agreed to plead guilty to three criminal cases. Two cases were of introducing misbranded drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, and one case of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration. GSK paid a settlement of 3.5 billion dollars to support the criminal and civil charges. GSK had attempted to influence doctors by bribing the doctors so in turn the doctors would use their medications. They also claimed that GSK had aimed at promoting the use of the drug Paxil in children by helping to publish a medical journal article that misreported data from a clinical trial. GSK was falsely advertising many of their products by leaving out or adding in false information. One of their products, Avandia (diabetes medication), was linked to an increase in heart attacks and congestive heart failure; they had illegally marketed Avandia by paying doctors, and manipulating medical research to promote the drug. Also Paxil (antidepressant) was not approved for patients under 18, but GSK illegally marketed the drug for use in children and teens. GSK also gave lavish and expensive vacations to convince medical professionals to prescribe the antidepressant Wellbutrin for weight loss, even though the drug is FDA approved only to treat depression. The rules regulating pharmaceutical companies are very clear – they cannot market a drug for a non-approved use. Doing so breaks the law. GSK broke the law. GSK had committed multiple acts of unethical behavior. Another one is when it made a study on 24, 000 children, out of which 14 died. Reasons given were; the firm failed to get proper consent from the children’s parents before injecting Synflorix, one of its bestselling vaccines, kept inadequate records of the children’s ages, medical histories and relied on permission from under-age parents or illiterate grandparents.
The stakeholders that were involved with this case were consumers, upper management, doctors who were subscribing the medication, and stockholders.
Thus, in contrast to the ethical theories, Utilitarianism, Kantianism, and Virtue Theory. GlaxoSmithKline violated all of the ethical theories because of their illegal and potentially life threatening medicine they produced.
Answer the following questions:
a. GSK has performed several unethical practices. In the light of the above case, highlight the unethical practices in the marketing areas of
i. Product Management iii. Personal Selling
ii. Advertising iv. Research
Answers
Answer:
GlaxoSmithKline is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. They are headquartered in London but they sell their products all over the world. In 2012 GSK agreed to plead guilty to three criminal counts. Two counts of introducing misbranded drugs Paxil and Wellbutrin, and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration. GSK paid a settlement of 3.5 billion dollars to support the criminal and civil charges. GSK had attempted to influence doctors by bribing the doctors so in turn the doctors would use their medications. They also claimed that GSK had aimed at promoting the use of the drug Paxil in children by helping to publish a medical journal article that misreported data from a clinical trial. GSK was falsely advertising many of their products by leaving out or adding in false information. One of their products Avandia (diabetes medication) was linked to an increase in heart attacks and congestive heart failure; they had illegally marketed Avandia by paying doctors, and manipulating medical research to promote the drug. Also Paxil (antidepressant) was not approved for patients under 18, but GSK illegally marketed the drug for use in children and teens. GSK also used the help of PR firms and the appeal of lavish vacations to convince medical professionals to prescribe the antidepressant Wellbutrin for weight loss, sexual dysfunction, drug addiction and ADHD, even though the drug is FDA approved only to treat depression. GSK had committed multiple acts of unethical behavior.
The stakeholders that were involved with this case were consumers, upper management, doctors subscribing the medication, and stockholders. The consumers are very negatively affected because they are taking the medication that is potentially life threatening, they also could have been taking medication that was not effective. Upper management is almost directly responsible for all the illegal actions that took place because they are the ones that made the calls to withhold information and engage in illegal activities knowingly. The doctors were affected because they were prescribing this medication and this medication was potentially harmful to people, some of the doctors who received bribes from GSK also lost their medical license. Then the stockholders were also affected because of the 3 billion dollar payout and the lost of reputation for GSK heavily affected their stock which resulted in a lost in money for stockholders.
Answer:
Weget
f(x)=ln(lnx)+
(lnx)
2
1
∫f(x)dx=∫(ln(lnx)+
(lnx)
2
1
)dx
x=e
t
,dx=e
t
dt
=∫(lnt+
t
2
1
)e
t
dt
=∫e
t
(lnt+
t
1
)dt+∫e
t
(
t
2
1
−
t
1
)dt
=∫e
t
(lnt+
dt
d(lnt)
)dt+∫e
t
(−
t
1
+
dt
d
(
t
−1
)dt)
=e
t
lnt−
t
e
t
+C
∫fdx=xln(lnx)−
lnx
x
+C
y=xln(lnx)
1
−e
+cput(e,e)
e=eln(1)−
1
e
+C
c=2e
y=xln(lnx)
lnx
−x
+2e