Corportae Social Responsibilty

We will explain how bribery has persisted for so long in the pharmaceutical industry. And how it is illegal and unethical (CSR approaches).

The global pharmaceutical industry is under threat for the way that it markets its products.

Once a medicine or drug is launched it need to be sold. this is where the key issues seem to arise. The main method of promotion is via personal selling by tens of thousands of sales representatives who visit, inform and entertain clinician who might then go onto prescribe or recommend the product.it is hard to imagine how pressured personal selling medicines can create some ethical dilemmas. Since long time most of pharmaceutical companies inviting (some paying) doctors to conferences, often in luxury international hotels(bribe)paying consultants to give speeches and presentations about certain drugs (conflict of interest) and simple financial bonuses for prescribing certain medicines. The GSK case is one of many bribery scandals involving prominent multinational corporations in China.in 2013 alone such firms as Novartis, Eli lilly&Co, Sanofi, Avon etc. (according to Nicolas Daban, Temple University in case study of FCPA) either launched internal investigations or were probed by Chinese, US and Britch anti-corruption agencies regarding improper conduct in china.   This kind of behavior is unethical because the clinician may prescribe unnecessary medication just to get the benefit which can affect the patients’ health negatively with all side effect of the drugs for that now in the last two years most of the countries (such UAE) force clinician to write molecule when prescribing medications to the patients not the brand name. On the other hand, this is illegal because this is commercial bribery (commercial bribes are activities of giving or accepting money, in –kind goods or property with the purpose of providing or obtaining transaction opportunities or other economic benefits, which take place during commercial business and which are in breach of the fair completion principle). any unrecorded commission, discount or payment will be treated as commercial bribery. Violation of FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) can be triggered by the following: anything of value (a gift, payment, offer, or promise to pay of anything of value.