BUSINESS ETHICS

Star Alpha Medicines Case Study



Star Alpha Medicines Case Study

Introduction

This is a case study of one of the leading Pharmaceutical companies in the world and has indulge in number of unethical operations like aggressive marketing/sales strategy for selling Off-label drugs and influencing doctors to promote the sales of those drugs by offering them sponsored trips to conferences where they were entertained and given guideline presentations regarding those drugs.

We would be choosing one of four unethical cases and resolve the problem considering that we are in the management of the organization. In the first part of the case, we have identified the theory briefly and linked one theory of Business Ethics which relates to the issue of the case study and explained how does the theory proves that the issue indeed an unethical issue.. We have also discussed another similar case that took place few years ago regarding selling “Off-label drugs” and the consequences the company had to face after its unethical marketing.

In the second part of the case study analysis, we have discussed the theory in detail and then linked two courses of possible actions that would help the company to sell “Off-label” drugs without facing any consequences that would either harm their reputation in the market or decrease their yearly turnover.

Finally in the last part we discussed the limitations to the courses of actions suggested and then made conclusions for the whole analysis conducted.

First Part

Discussion

Identification of the Case

In today's world exploiting the use of drugs made by pharmacist and then selling them off to consumers under “Off-label” conditions has been one of the common issues being carried by pharmacist industries.

In SAM's (Star Alpha Medicines) case study, who was sued for corruption of carrying out aggressive sales strategies for selling Off-label drugs . The SAM's tends to be one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world has been promoting the use of drugs to treat patients facing dysfunctional sex, depression in children and obesity. These drugs are being prescribed to consumers without any legal approval or instruction labeling of FDA (Food and Drugs Administration) for its use, which also means that the drug won't have any specific details regarding the use and dosage of the prescribed medicine (Dresser, 2009, pp. 481).

Indeed the operations carried by the company mentioned above in the case are unethical and a case of corruption, if a patient using the drug suffers from any unwanted disease or side effects may increase the chances of lawsuits against the company.

Ethics of Utilitarianism Theory

The central features revolve around Bentham's theory which is:

The greatest happiness principle

Egoism

Artificial recognition of one's own welfare with those of others

The theory identifies that what is right is that which encourages more happiness. Utility here does not mean importance of action but the extent to which is can promote happiness. There are four main approaches to the theory; Act Utilitariansim, Rule Utilitariansim, Negative Utilitarianism and Preference Utilitarianism.

Negative Utilitarianism

Negative Utilitarianism is probably one of the most applied theories for unethical cases that ...