Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

Nicolette Clemmons
University of Texas at El Paso
February 26, 2015

Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

Introduction
Ever since 1980s, pharmaceutical companies have been under fire of bribery, breaking their own
laws and regulations. The main question is how can we trust these pharmaceutical companies,
as years go by, can we find trust in them again?. After all, they are the people who process and
distribute our medications and medical devices. According to Philip Mattera, from a non profit
company, Corporate Research Project, released a corporate rap sheet of Pfizers timeline of
scandals beginning from the 1990s. Pfizer, the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies have
been found guilty of numerous of crimes within their company, not just in the United States, but
in other parts of the world. Another piece of evidence is small pamphlet by Ipsos Public Affairs
called Reputation Snapshot for the Pharmaceutical Sector, describes the crisis of the
pharmaceutical companies globally, in countries such as the United States, France, Germany,
Sweden, North Korea, etc. Both genres appeal to the topic, and also release the emotional,
credibility, and the logic behind this particular topic.
Purpose and Audience
Both genres are very similar according to the topic, however, both genres are in fact, very
peculiar content wise. The first genre purpose is to persuade an audience that the company Pfizer
shouldnt be trusted for anything, involving including of how they test their safety of
medications. It lists everything each year that Pfizer was accused of doing, such as violating
human rights, bribery, doctors within their companies cheating patients into buying their
products. The purpose of the second genre is to inform the public about the wrongdoings of
most pharmaceutical companies. The audience intended for are people who are informed about

Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

the scandals between countries and Pfizer, and it shows that there are problems with
pharmaceutical companies, other than Pfizer. The first genre is also more pointed towards an
audience that is familiar with Pfizers past actions as well. In the second genre is more
informative and explains in depth every cynical aspect that goes on in pharmaceutical companies
around the world. The intended audience would be the people that are not informed about how
medication and medical devices are distributed.

Even the type of language is very different in both genres. In the corporate rap sheet, the type
of language used is more informal, basically listing the facts about Pfizers past and present
accusations and scandals. The vocabulary used in this piece of writing is more evolved around
the paralegal aspect of lawsuits and investigations that were involved with Pfizer. One aspect that
is interesting about this particular article is that it contains a link to websites more information
about each scandal, and additional news paper articles that are connected with each investigation
involved with Pfizer. In comparison to the second genre, which has more of a formal use of
language, that provides more facts and figures to the audience to fully understand the point in
which the non-profit organizations tried to make. The pamphlet also contains many graphs that
can make it easier to understand what is happening globally with the major pharmaceutical
companies.

Credibility

Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

The first genre, which is from a non- profit organization called Corporate Research Project that
actually researches in massive companies such as in the pharmaceutical industry, that are helpful
for activist and other organizations. Another aspect is that the article was written by Philip
Mattera, who is the director of the corporation, and he is active in public policy, which proves the
credibility of the facts written in the article. The company responsible for the Reputation
Snapshot for the Pharmaceutical Sector pamphlets, is referred to as Ipsos, which is divided into
four sections, such as, the marketing, connect, public affairs, loyalty, and observer sections. Each
of these sections were involved in providing valid facts and information on each country about
the crisis of the pharmaceutical industry. The public affairs sector had the most impact on this
research because it conducts research around the world about public policy, and of course the
loyalty sector, consisting of over one thousand professionals that research in a certain field
around the world, which proves the credibility of the facts provided.

Emotional
The huge emotional appeal that is relevant to any pharmaceutical company is the number of
deaths they have caused over the years. In the first genre, it mentions the number of deaths
caused by the number of heart valves sold, and how they illegally test healthy Nigerian children
for a drug, and later those children died of severe meningitis. This would be a very melancholy
feeling to anybody who reads this article. This company and many other took advantage of
human rights, which is part of their law not to be violated. The second genre does not contain an

Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

emotional side of describing the pharmaceutical industry because its mainly just facts about
what goes on globally.

Logic
In each genre, information was about the same, but wasnt expressed the same way. For instance,
the first genre, basically states of how corrupt and cynical Pfizer really is, and no matter how
much they end of fixing their issues within their company, more and more seem to up rise.
Compared to the second genre explains on how corrupt and cynical every pharmaceutical
company really is, and how people these days, just dont have trust in them anymore.

Conclusion
Consequently, both genres are very good examples of why and how people around the world just
dont trust the pharmaceutical industries anymore. The distinction between the two is that one
genre states what goes on with a pharmaceutical company over twenty years, and it released
extra information on why these industries shouldnt be trusted. The second genre is a very basic
overview on the pharmaceutical industries around the world, and it gives many statistics why the
industries have a very bad reputation, globally.

Trust Issues in Pharmaceutical Industries

Work Cited
Anonymous (2012) Reputation Snapshot for the Pharmaceutical Sector. Ipsos Global
Reputation Centre.
Mattera, P. (Nov. 23, 2015). Pfizer: Corporate Rap Sheet. Corporate Research Project.
Retrieved from www.corp-research.org/