Advertising And Marketing Operations Of Pharmaceutical Companies

While Walgreens is exposed to all the general ethical conundrums of the business world, the highly regulated “Pharmacies and Drug Stores” industry does not give much room for them to act unethically.

"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in

If you have ever watched TV in America you are aware of “direct-to consumer" (DTC) advertising for prescription drugs. These are ads provided by drug companies in the intent to educate the general public on the benefits of their product. They often feature celebrities or catchy cartoons with very healthy satisfied patients. This type of advertising of prescription drugs is unique to the United States. It was one of only two countries that allows DTC advertising. New Zealand is the only other developed nation that does. If the intent is to educate the prospective consumers about their product then why do only two countries utilize the technique (“For Consumers”)?

One primary goal of Pfizer is to deliver sustained, excellent product by outperforming Pfizer’s competitors and must differentiate itself adequately from its competitors. Competitive advantage is central to strategic management in that it will produce and sustain superior performance. To be competitive in a business environment, often it requires the company to have a product or service different and better than other organizations competing in the same marketplace. According to Wadman (2007) “Pfizer and the rest of the pharmaceutical industry need to develop more sophisticated drugs, targeted at a smaller number of people more quickly, efficiently and at a lower cost” (p. 1). Once Pfizer’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are assessed and analyzed, managers must decide a set of strategies to reduce or eliminate its weaknesses and capitalize on its strengths and maximize opportunities. An example is Porter’s three generic strategy approaches of differentiation, cost leadership, and focus strategy by using differentiation strategies to differentiate Pfizer from its competitors. Strategies are essential; however, it is useless unless they are effectively implemented levels of the company. Business-level strategies are typically developed and implemented by heads of business units and are first approved by top management. The functional level strategy is the last level that focuses on developing strategies for managing the various departments to

We are presented with a proposal made by a cardiologist wishing to invest collaboratively with the hospital in establishing an outside heart scanning center. Physician investment in a health care business, to which the physician will then refer, creates a situation ripe for potential conflict of interests. While physician investors may honestly believe the services provided in their facilities are of greater value and higher quality than competing institutions, the utilization of services in which they have a financial interest may well be influenced by the profit motive. Therefore this proposal creates a perfect target for regulatory bodies looking to find physician financial conflict of interest violations.

I think this particular ethical dilemma encompasses three of the APhA Code of Ethics principles. The principles involved are as follows: “pharmacist promotes the good of every patient in a caring, compassionate, and confidential manner”, second “pharmacist acts with honesty and

“A conflict of interest arises when a trustee has an interest that conflicts with the interest of the organization”. (American Medical Association, 2010).

Medical ethics have indirectly regulated the patient-doctor relationship for thousands of years. Today’s health care policies are primarily designed to politically regulate that relationship in accordance to medical ethics with a great focus on the patient’s best interest. Recently, however, the emergence of many physician-owned specialty hospitals has ignited a controversial debate over the legitimacy of their entitlement to receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement; especially with their higher prices than their competitor public hospitals offering the same services. It was not until 2006 when supported data proved that physician-owned specialty hospitals function differently from equivalent public hospitals.This paper discusses the

When people think about problems in hospitals, they think about triage, or nurses not getting enough sleep and making mistakes on the job. A few might bring up healthcare, but most, will talk about how much they had to pay when they broke their leg. How they had to pay a ridiculous amount of money for something, that can be made dirt cheap. Have you ever wondered why it cost so much? Well a part of these outrageous prices has to do with the pharmaceutical companies that sell the drugs. Since their creation pharmaceutical companies, like Johnson & Johnson NYSE: JNJ, Roche OTCQX: RHHBY, and Pfizer NYSE: PFE have taken far to much edvantige of the fact that hospitals and patients need their products. Is this practice ethical? Is it right to take advantage of people based on this need of products? I say no, it is not only immoral to take advantage of the hospitals need as they have, but also immoral to do so knowing that cost of these products will be forced on to the

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

Over the past couple of decades, a sudden change has started to take over the way business is done. The time when no rules applied, and anyone could do what they pleased at the cost of others or the environment is rapidly ending. Instead, companies today have become aware that it is essential for them to employ ethics and morality in their actions, if not they will be heavily scrutinized and rejected by the public. This way of thinking also applies to the pharmaceutical industry, which over the past century has been rapidly expanding. Do to the fact that this industry can determine the health and lives of millions of people, it is imperative that this industry follow an ethical and moral path.

A company’s duty is to all of its stakeholders, and while that most certainly includes generating revenue for its employees and shareholders, it also means providing decent healthcare to the community it serves. The critical issue of ethics comes into play when one considers how these agencies go out of their way to make money, but do it at the cost of their consumers’ wellbeing. While the aforementioned Ebola case was an unfortunate example of an industry completely neglecting a population’s health, a few more moral issues arise when pharmaceutical companies go one step further and knowingly put citizens’ lives in jeopardy, just to add some zeros to their

Society expects drug companies to improve people’s well-being and to behave like a nonprofit company not overly concerned with making large profits. However, investors

The corporate social responsibility states that "corporations can and should act ethically and be accountable to society for their actions." Pharmaceutical companies work to save lives and make a profit. Individuals should make sure that

ABSTRACT Purpose: This research paper gives an insight about the processes used by local and MNCs pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan.The purpose of our research is to examine that what factors affect physician prescription behavior based on ethical grounds. Methodology: This research focuses on the strategies and marketing tools used by pharmaceutical companies in