Abbott Laboratories’ recent suspension from APBI (Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry) is a good example of where breakdown occurs in regulating pharma industry’s promotional practices:
Abbott claimed ignorance from its employees entertaining physicians with lap dances because the expenses submitted fell under a threshold requiring prior company approval.
All companies claim “zero tolerance” policy toward the very behaviors that keep cropping up to mar industry image. Where is this disconnect? Are companies usually clueless to unethical and even illegal behaviors, or are companies condoning these behaviors from their employees? Either answer doesn’t bode well for the pharma industry, nor elicit any sympathy for its executives.
We need to stop looking at the industry as a faceless collective. We need to start looking at the rogue managers, directors, representatives, and physicians – yes, doctors should be held responsible if they wanted those lap dances – who believe their unethical could fly under the radar consistently. What are their names? To whom did they report (or in which hospitals or universities or clinics)?
Thanks to Faiz Kermani for the link to this story.