Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Blog 10
The Johnson& Johnson lawsuit/scandal startled me. With giant, established corporations like this, I find myself having a great deal of trust and faith in them. They seem so "mainstream" that I would never expect such misconduct. The fact that a company like this would willingly put public health in jeopardy, makes me question if they have any regard for the effects of their drugs. I believe there are companies that genuinely care about the public/customers, but events like this waiver confidence. I don't remember reading anything in the article about any prison sentences being brought on those high ranking executives that made the reckless decisions. I certainly hope these crimes don't go without those executives having to pay some prison time. I don't think crimes as seriously as this, putting as many people's livelihoods at risk, can simply be punished with fines. What makes the crimes even more appalling to me, is the nature of the drugs being recklessly prescribed. This was not a case of over prescription of harmless Amoxicillin, we're talking about antipsychotic drugs with very dangerous side effects. Despite antipsychotic drugs already being controversial/ questionable, J&J was working hard to get them prescribed to as many people as possible. This is a great example of the importance of, at least some, government regulation. In this scenario the government was able to protect/save a lot of people and bring about justice for these irresponsible/careless crimes.
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I definitely agree that someone high up in Johnson and Johnson should be held accountable for this. It is not right that they can just throw money at people to make them go away and then continue on with their day to day work. I feel that we see this go on with large corporations far too often and the people who are high up in these corporations are treated differently under the law than the common man.
ReplyDeleteJohnson and Johnson, higher up personnel should be held accountable for their actions. These people should be fired at the very least who are most responsible and jail time should also be given. Large corporations need to be looked at more closely because I bet things like this are going on around other large corporations.
ReplyDeleteHey Tanner! Your comment about how drugs are being prescribed recklessly made me think about the (relatively) recent release of the DSM 5 which expands the definitions of diagnostic symptoms for various mental disorders. Under this recent edition of the manual the "definition" of autism, OCD and ADHD have all been expanded, making it easier for people to be diagnosed with serious disorders they may or may not have. There are 5 year olds on ADHD pills because they're hyper. It seems like there is a pervasive culture of overmedicating people in our society such that pharmaceutical malpractice has (arguably) become the norm. That's probably why no one will serve jail time for this.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem that every passing day brings some new scandal that erodes trust in some public institution. And it is important to remember that corporations are public institutions in a sense. They are privately owned, but they are created by public regulations, norms, and expectations. As Dean Baker reminds us, corporations are not natural, and we should tailor them to our needs. As Amanda suggests, here the problem interacts with other institutional problems as well, making it more complicated.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think jail time would be good for the people who decided to do this, I don't think it will happen either. However, the joke of a fine they had to pay is not ok. They need some serious repercussions for what they did. The fine they got is hardly a deterrent, because they still made millions and millions through their malevolent ways after the fines.
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