GlaxoSmithKline Ethical Issues 2012
What happened (facts)
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. They are based in London and they sell their products all over the world. Back in 2012 they were confronted with legal issues and plead guilty on 3 criminal counts. GSK paid a settlement of 3.5 billion dollars to support those charges. Unethical and illegal actions performed by GSK during that period ran from bribing doctors, to misreporting data from a trial and manipulating medical research data.
Case Analysis (stakeholders)
The stakeholders involved in this case were consumers, upper management, doctors and stockholders. Consumers were negatively affected because they were unconsciously taking ineffective and potentially life threatening medications. Upper management is directly responsible for the illegal actions. Some of the doctors who received bribes from GSK lost their medical license. Stockholders lost money because there was a negative impact on GSK reputation and stock.
Model projection
Information rights & obligations: On individual level they were unethical in withholding information and furnishing wrong information regarding their products. Society did not know this and this was against the law on political level. Accountability & Control: here it was a case of who should be held liable for unethical behavior affecting all the aforementioned stakeholders. In my opinion the upper management of GSK should be held accountable. System Quality: to better avoid such situations where a company can introduce misbranded and fake drugs, a system of control can be developed where external researches control, certify and register the products before they can be offered to the market. This would avoid individual unethical possibilities, and must be implemented on social and