Suppose that you are tasked with managing a health care marketing division for a pharmaceutical drug. A junior member of your marketing team suggests that you increase the budget to invite health care providers to attend symposia in which they will be trained to be speakers. One goal of the marketing plan is to influence physicians to prescribe the drug. The team member has draft versions of brochures and DVD's espousing the benefits of the drug; these are to be distributed to physicians and patients as a way to boost sales. The team member also suggests that a bonus system be set in place for your sales representatives in their territories in order to increase the number of prescriptions that physicians make for the drug.
(A) What are some of the ethical issues associated with this marketing strategy?
Some of the ethical issues associated with this marketing strategy is that one goal of the marketing plan is to influence physicians to prescribe the drug. A lucrative bonus system encouraged sales representatives to increase sales of OxyContin in their territories, resulting in a large number of visits to physicians with high rates of opioid prescriptions, as well as a multifaceted information campaign aimed at them. In 2001, in addition to the average sales representative's annual salary of $55,000, annual bonuses averaged $71,500, with a range of $15,000 to nearly $240,000. Purdue paid $40 million in sales incentive bonuses to its sales representatives that year. From 1996 to 2000, Purdue increased its internal sales force from 318 sales representatives to 671, and its total physician call list from approximately 33,400 to 44,500 to approximately 70,500 to 94,000 physicians. Through the sales representatives, Purdue use...
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...Expanding Tort of Negligent Misrepresentation. The University of Memphis Law Review 40.1 (Fall 2009): 105-164. Retrieved on December 2013 from Proquest http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/docview/217042903/142C742B7975ABC17E0/18?accountid=28844
Van Zee, Art. (2009, Febuary). The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy. American Journal of Public Health. 99(2), 221-227. Retrieved on December 2013 from Proquest http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/docview/215090238/142BCC1433412EFA5AA/1?accountid=28844
Weber, Leonard J. (2006, March). Profits Before People? : Ethical Standards and the Marketing of Prescription Drugs. Bloomington, IN, USA: Indiana University Press, 2006. p 7. Retrieved on December 2013 from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.trident.edu:2048/lib/tourou/docDetail.action?docID=10161033
Deontology theory defines an ethical action as one that adheres to a set of rules and duties. PharmaCARE’s actions are unethical by way of this moral compass because the firm has failed to perform in accordance with one very important duty, the duty to safeguard human dignity and basic human rights. Paying $1 a day to its workers and not providing them with even the most basic of amenities is a gross violation of the firm’s obligation to safeguard human rights, which in itself is a morally required behavior and applicable almost universally. PharmaCARE is not treating the Colberians like the treat their executives, nor are they treating the community there as they treat the communities in the
In Melody Peterson’s “Our Daily Meds” , the history of marketing and advertising in the pharmaceutical industry is explored. The first chapter of the book, entitled “Creating disease”, focuses on how major pharmaceutical companies successfully create new ailments that members of the public believe exist. According to Peterson, the success that these drug manufacturers have experienced can be attributed to the malleability of disease, the use of influencial people to promote new drugs, the marketing behind pills, and the use of media outlets.
Lyles, Adam. “Direct Marketing of Pharmaceuticals to Consumers.” Annual Review of Public Health, volume 23. 2002. Print.
"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in order to cure their ailments. For instance, they may present symptoms that are perfectly harmless, and lead potential citizens to believe that, because of these symptoms, they are "sick" and in need of medication. In some instances, the pharmaceutical industry in the United States misleads both the public and medical professionals by participating in acts of both deceptive marketing practices and bribery, and therefore does not act within the best interests of the consumers.
Doctors work under intense pressure, and if a pill could fix a patient’s problems than many saw nothing wrong with that. What exacerbated the problem was that many hospitals also changed their modus operandi with regards to treatment. In some hospitals, “doctors were told they could be sued if they did not treat pain aggressively, which meant with opiates (95). However once the patient became addicted and could no longer get their prescription legally refilled, the drug dealers saw their chance. What is surprising is the fact that pharmaceutical companies acted in the same manner as drug dealers. Both sides did not care about the end user, and the problems they would have to deal with after using what was given to them. Their motive was purely to profit as much as possible, and they did not care about who would get hurt as a result of their
It is said that name-brand prescription drugs in Canada cost approximately 40% less than they do in America. But it is illegal for the transport of drugs from Canada to America. Why? It is because Pharmaceuticals are simply greedy and prey on victims that are in need of their products to survive. It makes it hard for large households on a budget to purchase drugs to keep healthy. The way pharmaceutical companies look at their clients is like this: It is a life or death situation for them so the customers have to buy it in order to survive. According to the annual Fortune 500 survey, the pharmaceutical industry, expectedly, made it at the top of the list of the most profitable. The top seven pharmaceutical companies took in more profit-money than the top seven media companies, the top seven airline companies, the top seven oil companies, and the top seven car manufacture companies. (…cost so much, CNN) The profits of pharmaceutical companies are outrageous and extreme. There are many reasons to why these companies are greedily taking advantage of customers. The number one reason is because people who are need of these prescriptions have no other choice but to purchase them.
3Walker, Hugh: Market Power and Price levels in the Ethical Drug Industry; Indiana University Press, 1971, P 25.
Works Cited Castellblanch, Ramon “Selling Out Seniors to Protect Drug Industry Profits” Hartford. Courant. The.. Goozner, Merrill. The 800$ Million Pill. Berkley: University of California, 2004.
"ETHICAL DEBATE: On the horns of a dilemma." Chemist & Druggist. 03 Dec. 2005: 30. eLibrary. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
In recent years’ health reform has been a driving force in the United States political system. If you watch the news, you will understand how citizens, the government, or the economy are or might be affected by some sort of change in medical regulation. One of these hot topic issues is the cost of prescription drugs. Every major drug market besides the United States regulates the price of drugs in some way (Abbott and Vernon). By the United States not doing so, many believe it opens consumers up to being exploited by large pharmaceutical companies.
The liability for negligent misstatement may arise from pure economic loss. According to Steele (2010), ‘Economic losses will be regarded as “pure” if they do not flow from any personal injury to the claimant nor from physical damage to his or her property’. The boundaries between “pure” economic loss and the loss which is “consequential” from damage were established by the Court
In this unit, we will be discussing real-life healthcare organizations, the 5 P’s of healthcare marketing, and evaluation strategies that may be used to determine marketing potential.
Nurses, physicians, and pharmacists are held legally responsible for safe and therapeutically effective drug administration no matter who actually prescribed it. All members of a health team may be held liable for a single injury to a client. Nursing organizations have adapted similar codes of ethics that can serve as guides for the development of one's own code. The client's rights as defined by these codes of ethics are to promote health, prevent illness, restore health, and alleviate suffering (White, Duncan, & Baumle, 2011, p. 516). For example, a patient has every right to know necessary information about a drug he or she is receiving and to refuse to take it after having been given an explanation, no matter
Webster, John. "Drug Marketers Don't Always Deliver a Healthy Message." Spokesman-Review. 30 Sep. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.
Purpose of the report: The aim of this report is to analyze various “wellness plans,” their advantages and disadvantages both to the employee and to the employer. This will give a guide on which wellness plan is the most suitable to implement and give recommendations to Coca-Cola company on which wellness plan is the most suitable to implement.