Journal of Business & Economic Policy

Corporate Responsibility and Ethical Culture in Pharmaceutical Industry
Daniela M. Salvioni, Francesca Gennari, Riccardo Astori

Abstract
The characteristics of pharmaceutical sector imply a high risk of corruption with a considerable damage for the industry, the healthcare system and the whole community. The pharmaceutical companies have an important role for a generalized recovery of effectiveness in the health sector, so many international institutions intervened with models of ethical code that represent the minimum standards the companies should respect to reach good ethical practices. At present, most of the companies have well-structured code of ethics/conduct, but it frequently seems not favor corporate behaviors ethically correct sharing priorities in the triple bottom line. The paper makes considerations about the role of the ethical code on building strong value-driven cultures as tool of corporate responsibility in the pharmaceutical industry. The aim is to demonstrate how difficult is the coherence between the values declared in the code and the effective behavior when the corporate ethical culture fails.

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