GlaxoSmithKline Ethical Lapses
Over the last decade, ethical issues affecting quality of GlaxoSmithKline’s products have emerged. These issues occurred because the company failed to follow production procedures. The need to make profit contributed to unethical activities in GlaxoSmithKline. The company has been has been sued for selling Paxil and Avandia even after research results showed that their side effects were serious.
GlaxoSmithKline released the two drugs to the market without informing its customers of the side effects. Paxil was not suitable for children under the age of 18 but GlaxoSmithKline kept the information.
Use of Paxil led to addictive behavior, withdrawal symptoms, birth defects and serious suicidal tendencies. Earlier on, a GlaxoSmithKline physician had enrolled children with no major depression or obsessive compulsive disorders for purposes of research (Moynitan & Cassels, 2005).
Avandia was manufactured and marketed after the company had conducted research and found out that it might be less safe than other competing diabetes drugs. The quality of this drug put serious ethical concern on GlaxoSmithKline (Philpott & Baker, 2010). However, the company kept the safety issues from the public to protect the company’s image.
Manufacturing procedures have not been entirely followed in the past casting doubt on quality of GlaxoSmithKline products. When the company fails to clean its machines after production of one drug is completed, the next drug will be contamination.
This affects quality of the drugs. Most of the drugs manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline in Cidra Plant in Puerto Rico had serious contamination (Harris & Wilson, 2010). Furthermore, packaging of some drugs was wrong and posed a serious problem on quality because patients could easily use wrong dosage.
Reasons for Leadership Failure to Prevent Ethical Issues of Integrity Failure
GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceutical company has been facing stiff competition for long time. The company’s top management prioritized profit at the expense of health of its customers. For Avandia, safety data were suppressed and the company executives never apologized for their decision in order to protect their economic interests (Philpott & Baker, 2010).
Considering the number of people who require these drugs on their daily basis, the company makes massive profits. If the leadership adheres to ethical deeds, the company will end up making losses. This will not go down well with the shareholders of the company.
The management has opted not to prevent these ethical issues from occurring and wait for repercussion of manufacturing drugs with questionable quality. Most of the time when the company is faced with such issues, it is just fined and left to continue with its operations as seen in Avandia case (Feeley & Kelley, 2010).
Measures to Prevent Future Ethical Dilemmas and Reputational Damage
To prevent ethical dilemmas and reputational damage, GlaxoSmithKline should put in place extensive measures transform manufacturing operations and leadership style. Through new and progressive management, the company will be able to overcome all possible ethical issues and make profit at the same time (Becker, 2009). The company should have its research team working ahead of competitors.
This will ensure that they have enough time to identify side effects of each drug and make changes to mitigate the effect before it is released to the market. This can only be done through sound leadership. Furthermore, such leadership will ensure that all procedures and safety precautions are taken into consideration when drugs are being manufactured.
This will eliminate cases of contamination which were seen at Cidra Plant in Puerto Rico. An ethical and sound leader will value health of customers and reputation of the company. As a result, quality, safety, ethics and profit will be given equal consideration when making key decisions in the company (Becker, 2009).
References
Becker, K. G. (2009). Moral Leadership in Business. Journal of International Business Ethics, 2(1), 254-269.
Feeley, J., and Kelley, T. (2010). Glaxo Said to Pay $460 Million to Settle Avandia Damage Suits. Bloomberg. Web.
Harris, G., and Wilson, D. (2010). Glaxo to Pay $750 Million for Sale of Bad Products. The New York Times. Web.
Moynihan, R., and Cassels. A. (2005). Selling sickness: How Drug companies are Turning us into Patients. New York: Allen & Unwin.
Philpott, S., & Baker, R. (2010). Why the Avadia Scandal proves Big Pharma need Stronger Ethycal Standards. Bioethics, 24(8), 16-19.