CHANGING THE CULTURE

I've written before that corporate wrong doing is often a natural consequence of the culture at particular corporations and that's why I think it's a LOT better that some of the bigger fish, including CEOs, face some sort of penalty for corporate misbehavior IN ADDITION to fines.  At first glance, this government action in the article below seemed a bit unfair to individuals but we have to ask if CEOs should be allowed to escape responsibility?  Let's also not forget how badly Big Pharma has been acting since the year 2000.

U.S. Effort to Remove Drug CEO Jolts Firms
By ALICIA MUNDY
APRIL 26, 2011
Wall Street Journal

The Department of Health and Human Services this month notified Howard Solomon of Forest Laboratories Inc. that it intends to exclude him from doing business with the federal government. This, in turn, could prevent Forest from selling its drugs to Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration. If the government implements its ban, Forest would have to dump Mr. Solomon, now 83 years old, in order to protect its corporate revenue.

The Forest case has its origins in an investigation into the company's marketing of its big-selling antidepressants Celexa and Lexapro. Last September, Forest made a plea agreement with the government, under which it is paying $313 million in criminal and civil penalties over sales-related misconduct.

The pharmaceutical industry has paid billions of dollars in civil and criminal penalties over the past decade, but the government believes they no longer have much deterrent effect.