Understanding crime and punishment within the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

This dissertation looks into the issue of crime within the pharmaceutical industry, giving particular attention to the way such crimes are penalised. Generally, pharmaceutical companies are given fines, though it is questionable whether such punishment is acting as a suitable deterrent when companies continue to repeat the same illegalities. The research therefore seeks to establish whether other forms of punishment could be more effective in deterring the crimes of the industry. For this dissertation, literature is analysed in order to garner a better understanding of pharmaceutical crime. The study concentrates on three cases where major pharmaceutical companies were found to be committing crime and focuses on specific offences, such as the illegal promotion of drugs for off-label use, healthcare fraud, and the distribution of illicit kickbacks to physicians by pharmaceutical companies. In order to gather data, a qualitative approach is employed, using semi-structured interviews with professionals having working relationships with the pharmaceutical industry and with lawyers, to represent a sample from the criminal justice system. The findings show that interviewees are aware about the issue of crime within the pharmaceutical industry, though their knowledge about the subject is not vast. The study shows that the pharmaceutical industry is trusted highly by medical professionals, and though participants are aware that the industry has a negative side, many advocate in favour of the industry, stating that pharmaceutical companies have also provided life changing treatment to millions of patients. The research also concludes that fines do not act as a deterrent and are not effective in reducing crime by the pharmaceutical industry, due to pharmaceutical companies having so much capital. The study reveals that the preferred punishments for penalising the industry are imprisonment and the suspension of the company’s licence. Additionally, participants do not favour creating more awareness about pharmaceutical crime in society and would rather make punishments harsher for the industry, the reason being that extreme awareness might influence patients not to take drugs they might require.