Business Ethical Issues Dilemma Essay

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Along with the rapid development of economic society, competition for companies is no longer limited, it is becoming fiercer and fiercer. In order to stand out in the competition, some companies tend to overlook the importance of environmental sustainability, providing safe working conditions for their staff, or they may be involved in corporate corruption or dumping.

Such behavior puts companies themselves into ethical dilemma like environmental issues, sweatshops, poverty etc. History presented many examples of these ethical issues, it is best illustrated if given the following example.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK following abbreviation), is a leading, research-based pharmaceutical company, making almost four billion packs of medicines and healthcare products every year. Headquartered in the UK and with operations based in the US, they business employs around 100,000 people in over 100 countries. In recent years, GSK has bribed government officials, the pharmaceutical industry associations and foundations, hospitals even doctors to open medicine marketing, improve drug price, squeeze more benefits and grab more control of the market. For GSK, there are three main means of bribery.

First of all, put up price. Most of drugs sold by GSK in China were labeled “Country of origin: the United States (or other developed countries)”. It could attract more customer. Before importing drugs, GSK unethically increased the declaration price of drugs through transfer pricing. It also withheld huge profits outside China and set a high cost of sales for supporting bribery. Take an instance of Lamivudine Oral Solution. The actual cost was 15.7RMB each. After transfer pricing, it was 73RMB. GSK ex-factory price (excluding tax) was 142RMB. Approved by the price departments, the retail price was 207RMB each. From 15.7 RMB to 207RMB, retail price is about thirteen times higher than actual price. Some patients cannot afford such a high price but bribe-taking doctors insisted patients take the drug. Many patients were forced to choose between a giving up treatment altogether or paying for expensive prescription drugs. (Want China Times, 2014).

Second, bribe doctors. This was happened in the US. An attorney told us how doctors were bribed. "The sales force bribed physicians to prescribe GSK products using every imaginable form of high-priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations, paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours, to tickets to Madonna concerts," said US attorney Carmin Ortiz (Want China Times, 2014).

Thirdly, executives grab illicit money. According to police headquarters’ disclosure, Liang Hong, an executive in GSK China branch, often used decision-making power for bribery. The total
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