Code of Conduct for Pharma Companies: An analysis

Eli Lilly and Company: Eli Lilly has The Red Book which guides the company's dealings with peers, supervis rs, subordinates, government agencies, suppliers, business partners and other ex ternal parties. It sets the standard of behavior they aim to meet or exceed ever y day. The guidelines for conduct at workplace entail keeping the workplace free of ina ppropriate behavior or harassment and prevention of any kind of discrimination. Being in the pharmaceutical business, they also have a stringent but contempora ry code of conduct for medical research; laboratory and manufacturing keeping in mind the concerns of current scenario and issues. The company displays immense maturity and responsibility by framing policies that ensure a hazard free work e nvironment, conscientious treatment to research animals, utmost confidentiality and careful handling of information assets. They also have strict anti-corruptio n and disclosure norms. They have also identified potential situations giving ri se to conflict of interest and have given guidelines to deal with such situation s. Along with setting up strict guidelines for employees, they also encourage empl oyees to raise concerns, report violations and ensure that there is no retaliati on against those who report. The comprehensive breakdown of situations leading to ethical dilemmas, listing d own reasons and subsequent course of actions displays their maturity and experie nce in the industry and also validates the commitment of the company to maintain integrity and build trust. Eli Lilly makes sure that The Red Book is not only a formality or to put an act in front of the world. Rather they make it compulsory for employees to read and un derstand it and subsequently take relevant training. Disciplinary action is take n against those who fail to do so. This exemplifies their dedication to consolid ate ethical behavior, transparency and veracity. Novartis: Novartis also exhorts its employees to demonstrate social and environmental resp onsibility, professionalism, and use good business practices in performing their jobs. They consider candor, trust and integrity to be the guiding principles of organizational behavior. They also believe in fair, just courteous and respectf ul treatment to all irrespective of their position in the hierarchy. They stress on effective communication between employer and employees to tackle with situations involving conflict of interest and discrimination. Employees are also expected to refrain from bribes, business entertainments and gifts which a re not compliant with Novartis' general business expense policy, they have to main tain confidentiality of insider information and information pertaining to any of the company's alliances. They are supposed to respect rules and principle of fair competition and also obey all the applicable antitrust laws. Like Eli Lilly even their code of conduct is included in the training program a nd non-compliance leads to disciplinary actions. But the major difference between the two company's approaches is in the way situat ional handling is explained to employees. Where Eli Lilly is more comprehensive and explains solutions with the help of case studies and real life examples, Nov artis fails to do so. Also being a pharmaceutical sector company, Novartis shoul d have focused more on the legal and moral aspects pertaining to the sensitiviti es of the sector. The company prima facie appears to be silent on the norms to be followed in manu facturing process and medical research though it is possible that these guidelin es are provided elsewhere than in the code of conduct. GlaxoSmithKline: GSK's code of conduct retains the basic design of the earlier two but that is as f ar as it progresses.

 They have a concise set of rules that focus on the general workforce practices t o build integrity and honesty. But at the same time they stress on these practic es so as to protect company's image and reputation in relationships with customers , competitors, suppliers, business partners and staff. They mention separately the staff and the management responsibilities, therefore clearly defining the roles each one has to play in ensuring high moral standard s. GSK again doesn't mention any specific norms pertaining to the sector and lacks an y clear examples and analysis of situations to exemplify expected behaviors in s pecific occasions. Though they do stress on avoiding conflicts of interest, refr ain from taking unlawful gifts and bribes, avoid taking undue advantage of trave l benefits given to employees and following practices that ensure free and fair competition, but they fail to mention explicitly the situations one can face. It is clear from the above discussion that among the three companies, Eli Lilly has the most comprehensive, contemporary, and relevant code of conduct with rega rds to pharmaceutical industry. They not only mention guidelines specific to the issues in the sector but also give adequate cases and provoke employees to thin k and take right moral stand by means of asking questions. It depicts their comm itment not only to the company and its image but also to the society at large si nce what they deal in a sensitive issue to all i.e. human health.