Corporate responsibility and ethical culture in pharmaceutical industry

In a context marked by globalization, resource constraints, an aging population, the increasing demand for assistance and the right to health, the contribution by the pharmaceutical companies to sustainable development assumes special importance. According to the recent study of the European Healthcare Fraud and Corruption Networks, the cost that European countries must bear every year because of fraud and corruption in their health systems amounts to 56 billion euro. It is a considerable damage to the community, which has led several international institutions to intervene for the dissemination of responsible behavior in the health sector. The frequency and the importance of scandals involving pharmaceutical companies seem to demonstrate how difficult is the transfer of the principles of corporate responsibility in the management behaviors; and this despite the growing attention to the adoption of tools for the dissemination of ethical culture. When published, the code of ethics seems to be well-structured and to attest the strategic importance assigned by companies to global responsibility. Based on this consideration, this study considers the peculiarities of codes and their ability to the behavioral orientation, also in relation to the existence of the necessary conditions of transparency, sharing, consistency of individual behavior and an ethical culture that can limit the risk of corruption and scandals.