Drug production seems like a messy business. The GlaxoSmithKline class action lawsuit regarding unclean and unregulated activities in the Puerto Rico plant have me concerned since I doubt the majority of people look into this kind of stuff before purchasing their over the counter drugs or even getting prescriptions. There is a type of innocent faith in the drug companies that they will have our own best interest at heart.
Though it would be nice to live in such a world, it seems Glaxo truly is protecting itself and its shareholders. I'm not fully aware of the entire case, but based on the companies response I can see it's running on self-preservation and PR campaigns to protect its image.
I understand one's reputation is important in business; however, it is important to own one's faults. The part of the Glaxo company's response that spurred some doubt is the lack of accepting responsibility, and instead saying they knew about problems before any inspections in 2002.
Well if you are a drug producer, and you know about problems in production... would you keep producing at the risk of harming your client base?
Well I wasn't in the corporate office to weigh the risks vs rewards, but this is just my thought process at the moment.
You can read the source of this questioning at the following...
Source: http://www.productliabilityattorneyblog.com/2011/01/glaxos_response_to_…
Let me know what you think about accepting responsibility vs going on the defensive as a business owner... I would love to hear it...