Opinion: Can Ethics And Business Co-exist?

By Shrivika Ramaswamy
December 14, 2008

Ethics is always a difficult topic to discuss because there are not defined rules. Many times, ethical decisions come down to personal judgment. Therefore, every business has its own particular code of ethics. Too often, the line is blurred between ethics and furthering business sales.

An example of this blurred line is deceptive advertising. The FTC defines this as being a representation, omission, act or practice that is likely to mislead consumers acting reasonably under the circumstances. Many companies deceptively advertise products to downplay the negatives and emphasize benefits to increase sales. While the deception may not be as serious in all cases, poor ethics in the pharmaceutical industry can cost people their lives.

Recently, Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical corporations in the world with a $115 billion market cap, has been under litigation for fraud in attempting to skew trial results.  According to experts hired by plaintiffs suing the company, Pfizer "spun'' medical studies that undermined the drug maker's campaign to expand sales of its Neurontin epilepsy treatment.  Evidence of this became more apparent as researchers and investigators reviewed findings released in prominent medical journals. 

One of the experts who reviewed the documents, Dr. Kay Dickersin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, concluded in the San Francisco Chronicle that the Pfizer documents spell out "a publication strategy meant to convince physicians of Neurontin's effectiveness and misrepresent or suppress negative findings." 

The allegations of fraud with Neurontin are particularly shocking considering Pfizer paid $430 million in 2004 to settle off-label marketing allegations involving Neurontin by the U.S. Justice Department, according to an article by Cary O'Reilly, a columnist for Bloomberg financials.  This leads us to question whether penalties placed on pharmaceutical firms are deterring companies from potential manslaughter. 

Though Pfizer's case has received considerable attention of late, there have been numerous monetarily immense penalties placed on drug-makers in the past.  In the past few years, both Merck and Schering-Plough faced similar allegations as the scientific community analyzed reports. Quite often, however, the zeros on a check expediently silenced the outcry of the scientific community.

Last winter, Merck and Schering-Plough were criticized for delaying the release of a study on their best-selling cholesterol medication, Vytorin, which showed the drug did not slow the growth of plaque in arteries. 

Then again in April, a group of academic doctors questioned the validity of drug industry research after finding that Merck had hired ghostwriters to produce scientific articles about Vioxx, and then recruited prestigious doctors to serve as the article's official authors. Vioxx, a painkiller, was withdrawn from the market in 2004 after research indicated it could cause strokes and heart attacks. 

Though Vioxx passed FDA testing, it was recently withdrawn from the American market since it may have contributed to more than 60,000 deaths worldwide, according to the Chinese National Press. 

Current estimates that the largest lawsuit against Merck may be in excess of $18 billion according to the New York Times. The suit alleges that the company rushed Vioxx to market without adequate tests and downplayed risks of heart attacks and strokes from the blockbuster drug before voluntarily withdrawing it from the market last year.

As with Pfizer, though the companies may have or will eventually be fined what appears to us to be a hefty sum, does it really justify the lives lost due to unexpected drug interactions of side effects?  The blood of 60,000 people should rest on someone's shoulders.

Monetary fines are not enough to deter major pharmaceutical corporations from killing innocent Americans.  Greater accountability is needed to ensure the chain of command cannot hide the true culprits in such acts. 

They should be put on trial for the crime's they have committed, murder.  It is quite evident that $430 million is a slap on Pfizer's wrist, especially when Neurontin sales alone were more than $2.3 billion in 2002.  Individuals at Pfizer should be held accountable, and perhaps, even FDA officials. 

Though the government has recently emphasized initiatives for closer review by institutional review boards, a precedent needs to be set.  An example must be made out of the suits and lab coats that are willing to risk lives in order to raise profit margins. 

If significant actions are not taken now to punish those in the pharmaceutical industry who abandon their scruples, we will see more and more innocent people dying from preventable causes.