Illegal Off Label Promotion Is Personal Choice Of Actions

6-2. How does Target’s decision to adopt the ClearRx medicine labeling and packaging system (see page 160) fit the definition of ethical communication from chapter 1? 3

In In re Marriage of Granger, 197 Ill. App. 3d 363 (Ill. App. Ct. 5th Dist. 1990),

In 1899, Florence Kelley instigated The White Label Campaign of the National Consumers League (NCL), an organization dedicated to promoting proper working conditions and fair living wages for factory laborers.1 By linking middle-class women reformers with trade unionists in conjunction with the use of labels, the NCL successfully advocated for legislation to establish safety standards and maximum work hours during the Progressive Era.2 The NCL worked to help consumers know goods were produced through consumer sovereignty, which suggests the consumer is the one who can influence the production of goods.3 The White Label Campaign presents the idea that it is the responsibility of the consumer to “demand safety and reliability from the goods and services they buy.”4 In addition, the outcome of this campaign brought awareness to American society during the Progressive Era; this showed that natural human rights are not a privilege, but a right. The purpose of the White Label Campaign was to identify and label goods made under fair living wages and proper working conditions, and to compel consumers to take responsibility to support white-labeled companies.

As the Communications Coordinator for the Cobbs National Drug Manufacturer (CNDM) there is rising concern around recent events from the media exposure on the adverse effects one of our nationally advertised medications has had on the Chief-of-Police. According to Athena du Pre, PhD, “Lack of communication can lead to duplicated efforts, costly (and sometimes life-threatening) delays, frustration, and wasted time” (Du Pre, 2005, p. 289) and our goal is to maintain open communication. Today’s meeting will help identify several ways to deliver our message. Today’s meeting will help to brainstorm

Gwen Olsen, a pharmaceutical sales woman has confessed that after fifteen years of selling drugs, she lied to doctors in order to make obscene profits for the “unethical” drug companies she worked for; major names you would immediately recognize that I’m not going to post here. In her tell-all book: Confessions of an Rx Drug Pusher, she says, “There is no such thing as a safe drug,. I was being encouraged to minimize side effects when I talked to doctors… the misinformation,

During the Tylenol tampering scandal at Johnson and Johnson (1982) where seven people died, CEO James Burke and his team led a company culture that admitted the problem and set out to rectify it. He did not wait for the problem to fade away or just react to regional problems. He launched a Public Relations (PR) campaign and recalled several products whilst remaining calm and in control under the spotlight. He launched a further recall in 1986 costing Johnson and Johnson more than $200 million, when one person died after ingesting a capsule laced with cyanide (Yang, 2007). By doing so, James retained employee and customer loyalty. His achievement was of dealing with a crisis; he did not know cyanide was being planted into bottles, nevertheless he dealt with it. He remained trustworthy, transparent and engendered confidence. As an example, whilst at Johnson and Johnson, had James used questionable means for the success of the business, the organisation and the public would probably have forgiven him, following his conduct in the Tylenol tampering scandal. Not because they eventually forgot, but due to the importance in which

Case study number 2 talks about Nancy Smith’s decision to resign after having been demoted by her management team. Nancy Smith was the Director of Medical Research Therapeutics at a pharmaceutical company. During this time Nancy, had been working on developing a new drug and while doing so she and the others in her team discovered that the formula had too high of a continent of saccharin, 14 times higher than stated by the Food and Drug Administration permitted. With this knowledge, everyone in the team had unanimously decided that the project should not be distributed to people in the United State. They had agreed to continue to research to find a better alternative to having so much saccharin content.

Another law that imposes liability on healthcare manufacturers is the False Claim Act also known as Lincoln Law. Initially, the law was applied to people who defraud federal programs but in the late 90s the Act commenced to be applied to frauds associated with the promotions of the healthcare goods. The first recognition of off-label promotion was made in 1996 when Franklin v. Parke-Davis lawsuit was filed. Dr. David Franklin filed the False Claim Act case based on his concerns on his former employer’s, pharmaceutical company Parker-Davis, off-label promotion of anti-epileptic drug Neurontin. The proposed claim that off-label promotion complies with the False Claim Act was new and controversial. It took 8 years of legal disputes to attain equally beneficial settlement of $430 million in fines and penalties. The Franklin v. Parker-Davis case set a precedent for numerous off-label promotion cases, which still remain urgent matter for both lawsuits and public debates.

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.

Tylenol, an over the counter prescription product from Johnson & Johnson, was one of the top brands in the analgesic market. Within the company, it was also a large income earner that commanded nearly 15% of the company’s total profits. That being the case, the 1982 crisis was not only a big blow to the brand, but also to the company as a whole. The crisis jeopardized the company’s existence; putting at risk a multi million investment which the investors had a lot of faith in. Irrespective of whether the crisis was due to malicious acts from ill motivated criminals or not, the company had to act swiftly to counter the legal issues which were ensuing and mitigate huge impending losses. It was really a trying moment for the top management of Johnson & Johnson and more so to the CEO, James Burke, who faced the toughest test of his managerial career during this time. Though the crisis was amicably solved, there were some legal issues that were imminent and some valuable lessons learnt from the episode.

In a competitive market to which Johnson and Johnson operates, the smallest of errors can lead to consequences which can cut revenue. When large mistakes occur, millions of dollars are lost, and even worse, there is a loss of customer confidence. Johnson and Johnson has had numerous recalls in their consumer healthcare division recently, which rocked the organization’s once sound image, and diminished its profits. These recalls have hurt Johnson and Johnson’s stocks and cost the company about $900 million in sales last year (Rockoff, 2011).

Pharmed First Inc. is a widely successful chain pharmaceutical company with 85 drugstores located in Canada’s Atlantic provinces. George Brenner is one of the 6 regional managers and Angela MacFee is a store manager in a mall located in Dartmouth. One of MacFee’s loyal customers have purchased 9 packages of Diet Magic on September 2011 however wanted to return them on May 2012. Subsequently, MacFee reacted hastily and defensively, arguing with Johnston in spite of Pharmed First Inc. return policy (Figure 1). As a result, Johnston wrote a letter to Frank Chen, the president of Pharmed First Inc. and told Brenner to deal with it. He proposed that the company gives Johnston a $500 voucher and that MacFee apologizes. However, MacFee remained inflexible as she also challenged Brenner’s authority.

There is full concurrence among the four commentators: Gamgort, Nelson, Thompson, and Sheehan that Bryant Pharmaceuticals should not approve Laura's pitch for a product placement of Seflex on the news program The Morning Show. Undoubtedly, Laura and her Bryant colleagues, along with executive management have an unenviable task; conjuring a "dramatic increase in sales" (Peebles, Ellen. October 2003 P. 32) of Seflex prior to its patent expiration in two years. Yet, the purported solution fails to address serious concerns across three critical issues: "legal, business, and ethical" (Peebles, Ellen. October 2003 P. 40).

A day in the life of Alex Sanders: Driving in the fast lane at Landon Care Products

Galvatrens, a consumer products company in Houston, has a whistle-blower policy action on his hands. Mike Fields, a former division sales manager, has a claim of his wrongful termination as a result for