Glaxosmithkline Case Study

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a British pharmaceutical healthcare company. GSK was founded in the year 2000 and is headquartered in Brentford, England. GSK has recently fallen into many ethical business failings. 2007 began a time period of serious controversy and investigation of GSK. Eventually, GSK was accused of and pleaded guilty to criminal charges, resulting in a settlement of $3 billion.
In 1992, GSK released an antidepressant by the name of Paxil. One issue was that GSK advertised the drug for children. This would come up in an investigation and case at a later time. The major issue was that is became revealed that the drug that GSK claimed was “non-habit-forming” actually was. As discussed in “Judge: Paxil ads can’t say it isn’t habit-forming,” it was determined that these claims were fraudulent, and GSK was forced to remove this from television commercials nationwide.
The FDA later published an updated warning about the drug. Through this investigation, it was uncovered that safety information was withheld by GSK about Paxil intentionally. Data from the clinical trial for Paxil was not reported to consumers and therefore posed serious risks, including suicidal thoughts. According to additional findings, an internal document was shown to advise staff to withhold data regarding the use in children. It turned out that it had no beneficial effect in treating adolescents.
Later, in 2007, there were issues with GSK’s drug Avandia. Upon analysis and testing, evidence was compiled that possible side effects of Avandia were heart problems and death. Steve Nissen, the person who conducted said analysis, had a conversation with pharmaceutical executives. What GSK executives did not know, was that the conversation was being recorded....

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...r the right, is another way to help maintain ethical practices. Teaching employees to be on the lookout for unethical practices and aware of what actions need to be taken may also help. Having a transparent business is another prevention of unethical practices like this one. Businesses with a more hush-hush culture are more likely to have unethical practices, as it is seen as acceptable to hide things. The most direct method to prevent these issues is to hire the right people. Hiring the right people can significantly impact these concerns by starting at the source.
Recently, in December 2013, GSK announced that it would no longer compensate doctors for prescribing products or speaking at medical conferences. They also removed prescription-related sales targets for GSK’s representatives. They are making strides in the right direction to correct unethical practices.