Big Pharma Case and Big Pharma Stakeholders

Big Pharma Case
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Big Pharma Case
The United States’ Pharmaceutical industry is among the top profitable sector in the country. The industry follows an oligopoly nature where only the big players has a big influence hence the name ‘Big Pharma’. By the end of the last decade, Big Pharma had a huge number of lobbyists and was spending huge amounts of capital in forms of gifts to its physicians yearly. Lawrence and Webber (2008) defines ethics as “the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity.” In general terms, ethics are the issues that help us identify right from wrong serving as a basis to our moral conduct. In business, ethics is defined as the application of ethical ideas in identifying a business behavior (Lawrence & Webber, 2008). With the dynamic business environment across the world, organizations have different perspectives on how their business behavior should be. Therefore, this paper will analyze Big Pharma’s ethical issues with respect to business ethics.
Big Pharma Stakeholders
* Consumers. They are directly affected by the marketing practices of Big Pharma since they are the end users of the products and services provided by the industry. Regardless of the industry, consumers dictate the profits of an organization, but this is not the case in the pharmaceutical sector due to their lack of knowledge about the products being provided. Because of that, they happen to be on the losing end.
* Community. Concerns about the industry in the community tend to grow every day. Recent polls show that there are negative public perceptions towards the Big Pharma. This suggests that the level of trustworthiness is low from the public. Consumers which are part of the larger community are represented by interest groups.
* Industry representatives. There are lobbyists who are working on behalf of the Big Pharma and represent their business interests towards public. Having a huge lobbying force has consolidated a big influence within and beyond the industry. Their impact is felt in their repeated efforts to defeat certain restrictions in the industry.
* Government. Since the pharmaceutical industry has the ability to affect the general public, the government has taken interest in it. Its aim is to balance the interest of the community with those of the industry. To do so it has established an agency Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates drug production. Additionally, the government regulates the industry’s behavior by passing certain laws and bills.
* Investors. The primary objective of investors is the profitability of their investments. However, sometimes they get concerned about their reputations. Big Pharma’s marketing practices have raised several issues thus investors’ opinions are needed in this aspect.
* Employees. Big Pharma’s employees do not have a big influence since they do not have a say in the decision-making process. However, ethical issues may arise if their ethical principles are against those of the industry.
Ethical Issues
Like any other business organization, Big Pharma’s primary objective is to maximize pr...