Johnson and Johnson have a written ethical policy that mandates the patient's welfare and well being to be the highest priority in the business.
In addition the policy calls for the fair and ethical treatment of physicians that will recommend and prescribe their products.
It is our fundamental responsibility to place the well-being of the patient first by appropriately balancing risks and benefits and to ensure that the best interests of patients and physicians who use our products receive utmost consideration (Johnson www.jnj.com/community/policies/research_development_conduct.htm).
It is our responsibility to help ensure access to our products in the communities where we develop them (Johnson www.jnj.com/community/policies/research_development_conduct.htm)
It is our responsibility to ensure all Company-based, medically relevant product information is fair and balanced, accurate and comprehensive, to enable well-informed risk-benefit assessments about our products (Johnson www.jnj.com/community/policies/research_development_conduct.htm)."
The responsibly to challenge each...
At Dow Jones they had top company management show up every three years to ask if there was anything suspicious going on.
If Dow Jones wanted to act more ethically they should have provided a much more open and more often evaluation of the company ethics position and practice. Instead of waiting three years for discussions on ethics there should have been monthly meetings in which employees were encouraged to come forward without fear of reprisal.
In addition it would have behooved the company to come forward in the 1970's when it was first aware of the possible problems with the implants. Instead the company waited until health issues did arise and then tried to claim there was not enough proof that the implant had caused them.
