I’ll begin and end this post with some disclosure: None of the companies noted in this post have been charged or convicted of any wrongdoing in the current investigations.
I waited a week to write this post for two reasons. First, at this time last week, I was praising at least one of these companies for helping to make my life livable. I’m grateful for that, and I didn’t want to appear to be flip-flopping so quickly. I stand by what I said last week.
Second, I have to admit that when I first read about this, I started to get pissed. Had I written about this then, you might have seen quite a different post.
So having a week to reflect, I think that with the investigations ongoing, I just need to give the facts.
According to a report from Fortune, (part of the CNN© family), there are at least 81 public companies under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Department of Justice, for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.. Among other things, the Act makes bribery, to either obtain business or retain business in foreign countries, punishable in the United States. Among the 81 listed on an FCPA blog post,there are 12 companies who operate in the Medical Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Specialties, or Biotechnology industries. Here’s the list:
AstraZeneca PLC
Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc.
Bristol Myers Squibb
Covidien PLC
Eli Lilly
GlaxoSmithKline
Grifols SA
Medtronic
Merck
Pfizer
Sciclone Pharmaceuticals
Zimmer Holdings
I did a little looking around online, and I found that almost all of these companies have at least a page dedicated to Corporate Citizenship or Corporate Responsibility. Some have very detailed statements of corporate responsibility. Feel free to check them out if you like.
Going forward, I will try to give the facts as they come out. I hope it’s all good news. But right now I have a skeptical eye turned toward these companies. I hope my skepticism is misguided.
Again, disclosure: None of the companies noted in this post have been charged or convicted of any wrongdoing in the current investigations.
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