Deviance In The Corporate World
There is much deviant behavior in the corporate world that is both harmful to the individual and the public at large. Examples of such behavior includes cutting corners to make an extra dollar, ignoring worker's safety and benefits, or advertising products to be ideal when they can be harmful in various ways. This essay will outline four major industries in the corporate world that have either engaged in deviant behavior in the past, or continue such activities today.
One such deviant industry in the United States is the 77 billion dollar pharmaceutical industry that takes up roughly ten percent of all the medical costs in the United States. In 1992, this industry recorded 10 billion dollars in profits on 76 billion dollars in sales. This is a 13 percent profit margin. With the continued growth in population and the increasing age of the baby boomer generation, profits must continue to rise. These companies claim that it costs approximately 230 million dollars to bring a new drug to the market, however many remain skeptic and believe the real reason for such cost is strictly profit margins.
Drug companies differ from other buyer-seller relationships in the business world. As far as selling medication goes, the decision of purchase is not made by the buyer; but rather remains the prescribing doctor's discretion. Many pharmaceutical firms pay thousands of dollars to doctors in order to convince them to prescribe their drugs. In the office, doctors only prescribe what they know best, therefore drug firms do all they can to familiarize doctors with their own expensive brand name medications. One of the problems with this trend is that some of the drugs these companies are pressing upon doctors actually contain the same chemicals as generic drugs. Yet many of these major pharmaceutical companies claim their higher price is justified.
In 1978, ABC's 20/20 investigative news television program visited the Mylan Pharmaceutical Company....
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