Unethical Marketing of Prescription Drugs:
Misleading Direct-To-Consumer Advertising and Disease Mongering.

October 3, 2011
Unethical Marketing of Prescription Drugs
Introduction
The purpose of this ethical paper is to investigate the marketing tactics being used by pharmaceutical companies and discuss the ethical issues involved. The primary source of information discussed in this paper was gathered from analysis of business and scholar journals, case studies, and current news articles.
The main focus of my research was placed on the unethical practices of pharmaceutical companies and the current marketing regulations in the United States. The unethical practices primarily covered in this paper include disease/fear mongering, and the misuse of direct-to-consumer & physician-directed marketing to increase the profits of pharmaceutical firms. But before we get into the unethical practices taking place in today’s pharmaceutical industry, let’s take a look at the idea of ethics. So, what exactly is ethics? Merriam-Webster defines ethics as “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation,” and “a theory or system of moral values” (Merriam-Webster, 2011). As you can see, this is a complex but vague definition to say the least. In today’s world of international business where firms operate across cultural boundaries and face stiff competition in the fight for profits, it’s even more difficult to clearly define the meaning of ethics. While deep down, I have no doubt that most every person has their own ethical code, the questions still remains; on what values are these ethical codes based?
The truth about ethics is there is no exact definition that can be fairly applied to people. Some people base their ethics on religious views while others believe that being ethical is simply doing what the law requires.