Pharmaceutical Marketing Ethics

The discovery, development, manufacturing and marketing of medicines always involve questions of ethics. For example increasing pressure by governments to reduce healthcare expenditures potentially creates ethical issues for sales and marketing employees as they work to grow in the business. The healthcare industry is highly regulated and most pharmaceutical companies are committed to operating within the law. They have developed their own policies and guidance to ensure that all employees meet the highest ethical standards in their work. The Code of Conduct explains the standards that are expected from employees and is clearly communicated across each company. An Employee Guide to Business Conduct explains what the Code means in practice.

Most pharmaceutical companies are committed to sales and marketing activities that are ethical, responsible, principled and patient focused. They conform to the high, ethical, medical and scientific standards that are set by governments and regulators. On top of the regulatory requirements of governments, they govern their sales and marketing activities through company policy, on Pharmaceutical Marketing and Promotion Activity, and through industry and company marketing codes. Companies believe that it is important to work with governments to contribute to constructive debate on issues surrounding pharmaceuticals and healthcare. Where legal and appropriate they make political donations as part of this engagement. All of their interactions are governed by the Code of Conduct and appropriate Corporate Policies. Most have company wide auditing in place to fully investigate suspected breaches of their company standards and take appropriate disciplinary action, including dismissal where appropriate.

Never in the history of pharmaceutical marketing have the challenges been so intense and the stakes so high. Threats to growth and profitability have turned up the heat on pharmaceutical marketing teams to do more with less. As a result, pharmaceutical marketers must attain a new level of sophistication and precision to improve performance and maximize return on investments. At the same time, pressure is mounting on all fronts to provide greater value to all customers-including patients, providers and payers.