Just as "Accounting Irregularity" investigations have become all to commonplace in corporate America, the issue unfolding today where Merck stands accused of withholding patient safety information on Vioxx is just the tip of the iceberg. The pharmaceutical industry is on its way to being exposed in a criminal way. A father with eight years of experience in the pharmaceutical world speaks out about ethics to his two young daughters.
Girls,
When I came out of colledge, is it spelled college?, just kidding, anyway, when I came out of college and after a long job search I finally found the job I had been looking for. It was a sales position with a pharmaceutical company. It was a fairly exciting time because pharmaceutical sales jobs are hard to come by and pay fairly well. I wasn't completely swept up with the entire concept but I felt like that was the right path for me. It was about three years later when I began having some bad feelings about the industry. I was starting to get a little suspicious that perhaps 'ethical pharmaceuticals', as they are known, weren't as ethical as I had thought. It wasn't that I actually suspected anything illegal going on inside the company, but there was a building notion inside of me that felt like something was wrong. The industry seemed to be awfully interested in profit, and not as interested in the safety and health of patients.
My suspicions started at a national sales meeting when the company was launching a new drug. All the data on the drug was in order, all the proper studies had been done. So why was it that when the company scientists and MD's were presenting data to us about the drug, did company executives look towards us sales representatives with an expression on their faces as if to ask, "do you think they're buying it"? What was happening was that the executives were 'selling' the sales reps on the drug. Selling the sales reps. It didn't feel right. And, looking at it in hindsight, it wasn't right. They were selling us on the drug because the drug wasn't all that great in the first place. And, if you can't sell your drug reps on the drug, then how are your drug reps going to go sell doctors on the drug?
The pharmaceutical business is not the pristine jewel of ethics that so many people would believe. Pharmaceutical companies are hungry for money. Hungry in an unhealthy way. Hungry to satisfy their stockholders. Hungry enough to cover up evidence of severe cardiac events directly linked to their own drug. I believe that what has been exposed at Merck is just the tip of the iceberg. I believe we are headed into a decade that will unveil criminal activity inside the largest and most respected drug makers in the world. Is it so hard to believe? Criminal activity has already been unveiled at several major corporations that involve what might be called "creative accounting". Criminal charges have been filed against the largest insurance companies in the world for creating an environment where bribes were given to those who would throw business in their direction, thus drastically inflating the cost of insurance. Indictments have been handed down. Executives prosecuted. It's just that the pharmaceutical industry is next in line.
Inside of Merck, the trail of hidden emails is unfolding. Emails that date back ten years. Head scientists specifically stating in emails to executives that Vioxx is unsafe, warning that adverse cardiac events are present. Other emails outline plans for future clinical studies designed to avoid revealing the known dangerous side effects of the drug. Inside of Merck, collusion added to coercion created conspiracy, and led to murder. Many people are dead. Believing that Vioxx was safe, they took the drug. Believing Vioxx was safe because they were told it was safe. You may think murder is a strong word. After all, no one inside of Merck pointed a gun and pulled the trigger. But what's the difference? On one hand, a person is shot with a gun, on the other hand, a person is killed by the prescription drug prescribed to help him.
There are billions of dollars at stake here. Billions. In the free market, companies can sell their goods for whatever the market will pay for them. But this is not just the free market we're dealing with here. In pharmaceuticals, people's lives are on the line. We're not just selling a product. We are selling life. Billions of dollars changing hands. Billions. Who's going to notice if a few people end up dead? They probably had a bad heart to begin with. It wasn't the drug. It couldn't be the drug. We have the data right here to prove it….
Take the conspiracy theory here a little farther. What if you and I were quietly researching cancer, when we discovered a genetic link in between all cancers. We figure out how to turn the cancer gene off. When the gene turns off, the cancer dies. Our discovery cures cancer. It would save millions of lives globally. But what else would happen when we cured cancer? Well, hundreds of billions of dollars would be lost and tens of thousands of people would lose their jobs for starters. Consider the cancer specialty hospitals. Cancer researchers, nurses, doctors, drug reps, hospital staff workers, security employees, food service etc, etc, etc. All would go jobless because a cure for cancer had been created. Think of the billions of dollars in cancer and chemotherapy drugs that would be lost. The hundreds of millions of dollars in radiation treatments. The hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer research. The equipment manufacturers of all the pieces of medical equipment used to treat cancer. It would be in the hundreds of billions. Do you think that the pharmaceutical industry would be very happy about this? No, most of them would lose their shirts. Do you think that the pharmaceutical industry’s lobby efforts in Washington would be very happy to hear of the new cure for cancer? Do you doubt that they would quietly lobby against this? "But wait", you say, "we've got the FDA to protect us". They wouldn't let this happen to us. Oh really? Well just understand that officials at the Food and Drug Administration are being swept up in this Merck investigation as well. Influenced to let a few vital pieces of cardiac side effect data be 'reclassified' into a more gentile sounding minor problem. What's a few more bodies onto the pile? After all, there are billions of dollars on the line here.
Girls, I know that you are too young to understand all of this now. And I don't want you to think of your old man as a cynic. Just try to look at the world through a set of glasses. A set of glasses that helps you understand that there are many reasons that people want you to buy something. Many unethical reasons. Some of them will tell you whatever it takes to get you to buy it. And conversely, if you are in a position to influence people or influence a company, take notice of the fact that there are many people inside that company that want you to act in a certain way as well. Just ask yourself if they stand to personally gain from influencing you. What are their motivations? Will they profit from your decision? Ask yourself this, "is this decision the right thing to do"?
Remember girls, there are no shortcuts. If you are unethical, it will catch up to you. Maybe not in this life. But it will catch you in the next. Unethical people are motivated by greed. Watch out for greed. It's a killer. It feels great for a while but it makes you do things you don't want to do. There was a great line from a movie that really sums it up well. I've always remembered it because it summarizes greed and how you can avoid it. In the movie an ethical old man, counseling a corrupt young man, explains greed to the young man with a parable, "Son, …..man looks into the abyss. There's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character, and his character is what keeps him out of the abyss." Do you understand? Find your character and let it define you. When you are faced with greed, look for your character. It’s the only thing that stands between you and oblivion. Trust your judgment. Is what you are doing the right thing to do? Or do you have your own motivating factor?
Your DadThis article can also be viewed here Merck and Vioxx are Just the Beginning.
