“Bitter Remedy”: teaching case about the dark side of the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

Aiming to stimulate the debate and the critical thinking of the students in management and business, this teaching case aims to present a real situation in which inadequate, immoral and criminal conducts are shown, committed by a pharmaceutical company. Therefore, it differs from others whose interest is to identify best practices and decision making for a certain situation. The case is about the episode “Drug Short” from the series “Dirty Money”, that presents the many illegal and immoral practices committed by the pharmaceutical company Valeant, in an attempt to obtain greater profits for its shareholders. The case focuses on corporate practices that are harmful to society and gives an opportunity for a debate about the consequences of these actions and how they can be avoided.