Business Ethics Homework 6 20 March 2013 GlaxoSmithKline Case 1. Since 2005, GSK was hit with several severe lawsuits regarding product liability. When Andrew Witty was assigned the chief executive role of the company, post-merger, the ice of shares declined 50 percent, which harmed the company’s earnings, sales and reputation. The first ethical lapse came about when GSK was criticized for selling drugs to the public without informing its buyers of the detrimental side effects. The detrimental product was Paxil, designed to relieve depression, generated disastrous side effects such as addictive behavior and birth defects.
If there is one thing that scares a banker more than a subpoena from the Senate banking committee, it is a downgrade in the bank's credit rating.The Big Three ratings agencies are like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse for investors, municipalities, financial institutions, insurance companies, banks, even national governments. They make the ebola virus seem like a chocolate sundae. When you see them coming, hide the children and family valuables in the root cellar. Any downgrade from super terrific triple A, and Bay Street gets a violent attack of the vapours. This past week, Moody's Investors Service downgraded, ever so slightly, the ratings of Canada's largest banks.
Wal-Mart was pleaded guilty to six counts of violating the Clean Water Act. They dumped illegal waste in 16 counties all around the U.S. They dumped over two million pounds of regulated pesticides. This was not good for Wal-Mart because officials say a Solano county boy was seen playing with fertilizer near a Wal-Mart garden section (O’Donnell 1). Wal-Mart agreed to pay $81 million and $27.6 million to settle allegations (O’Donnell 1).
In the article “Methamphetamine: Are Tougher Anti-Meth Laws Needed?” Rusty Payne, spokesman for United States Drug Enforcement Administration, says, “Parents are consumed with getting their next high, they completely neglect everything around them, including their children.” When a meth user comes off of the high meth produces, often times they sleep for days on end. While in the process of coming off a meth high, a mother let her seven month old drown. Methamphetamine can enter a child’s bloodstream from coming in contact with someone cooking or smoking meth. When officers searched meth labs in 2003, seventy percent of children had toxic chemicals in their system. Children who come in contact with methamphetamine on a daily basis can develop cancer or liver, kidney, spleen, or brain damage.
"The campaign, 'Rethink Your Drink,' takes aim at sugary drinks like soda, sports drinks and fake ‘juices’.” A 2012 survey of over 600 Hawaii teenagers revealed that 93 percent reported consuming sugary drinks every week, and 48 percent said they had a sugary drink every day. (Twenty-seven percent of teenagers and over half of adults in Hawaii are overweight or obese.)" Led by the Department of Health, Hawaii hopes to reach out to 100% of its teenagers to educate about the sugary drinks being consumed. In the effort to teach as opposed to restrict, this campaign has shown a greater decline in obesity rates. The secret is using a 'gross' method which depicts teenagers drinking bottles of lard with fat flowing down their faces.
At its peak, thousands of new prescriptions for fen–phen were written daily. Success soon turned to disaster, however, with fen– phen being banned by the Food and Drug Administration and American Home Products, which marketed fen–phen worldwide, being hit with a $3.75 billion class action
Then, this report will analyse the case thought its external environment, and give some evaluation on its business response. Case study overview In July 2003, according to relevance investigations, Chinese authorities announced that the senior executives of GSK have paid nearly 3 billion Yuan (HK$3.8billion) to more than 700 travel agencies and consulting firms to facilitate bribes over a six-year period (Anderlini and Jack 2013). And four senior executives of GSK Chinese Company had been taken criminal compulsory measures by police on suspicion of economic crimes. Then, GSK issued a statement on its official website saying, they are disappointed deeply for some individuals’ unethical actions at company and third-party agencies and these serious allegations of fraudulent behaviour. They will co-operate with the Chinese authorities’ following investigation as well.
It seems only when a celebrity dies from an overdose of prescription drugs is when the sirens finally go off. Here are some facts within the last decade outlined below from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health that explains how this epidemic is destroying our teens and young adults. • In 2006, more than 2.1 million teens abused prescription drugs. (Johnston (NIDA) 2007) • Every day, 2,500 youth (12-17) abuse a prescription pain reliever for the very first time. (SAMHSA, • One-third of all new abusers of prescription drugs in 2006 were 12- to 17-year-olds.
On page 133 she states “On October 5, 2009, The American Academy of Pediatrics journal Pediatrics confirmed that the autism rate is now one in 110 children”. Kim also talks about other cases of autism she’s read about. Some parents cannot deal with children with autism. Kim writes about two cases she saw on the news. The first case was a multimillionaire mother who fed her eight year old son a fatal dose of pills.
(McCabe/Meissner) Immigration has been one of the largest contributors to American culture, science, business, education and health care. Immigrants pay taxes and start businesses. (Schoen) The starter of Hotmail was an immigrant from India with only $200. His company has certainly had a positive effect on the US economy. Immigrants from China built the Transcontinental Railroad, which brought our country together by connecting the East and West.