2nd July 2012
A US court has fined the giant pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)a record $3bn for a string of offences, including bribery and falsifying information. The case focused on three drugs: Paxil, Wellbutrin (Bupropion) and Avandia. The former two, which are antidepressants, were being promoted inappropriately to adolescents and even children, while at the same time doctors were being offered hefty bribes in order to carry out the practice. GSK admitted the charges and also conceded having misinformed the public with regards to the drug Avandia, which is used to ease diabetes.
GSK, which is a constituent of the FTSE Index and one of the top earning companies on the London Stock Exchange, is not new to court cases. In 2007, for instance, it was charged for falsely depicting its blackcurrant drink brand, Ribena, as being rich in vitamin C, only to be exposed by a couple of teenage girls working on a school project in New Zealand. It emerged that, once diluted, Ribena had no discernible vitamin C at all.
The company is also at the centre of a controversy regarding animal welfare, because it uses the Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) animal-testing organisation, whose practices are challenged by animal rights organisations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) who had secretly filmed their mistreatment of animals in the late 1990s. Of course it has not all been bad: GSK has not only been at the cutting edge of research into finding ways of curing various diseases, it has also worked strategically to eradicate some of them, in particular the parasitic disease lymphatic filariasis. As well as this, GSK has a glowing reputation with regards to equality and diversity. So is it just another Jekyll and Hyde company, or are there opposing forces, pulling in different directions? If it is the latter, then this court case should offer a welcome opportunity for GSK to clean up its act. if the former: then let it be a wake up call.
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