Problem:
Pharmaceutical companies' social responsibilities that may differ from other companies include assisting the public with medicinal needs. These organizations have an obligation to improve medical conditions by introducing new medication to patients globally; build awareness of disease prevention, diagnosis, treatments available and health care alternatives; and to work towards continuous improvement efforts (Pfizer, 2010).
The primary stakeholders for pharmaceutical companies may include:
- Employees
- Communities
- Shareholders
- Investors
- Government
- Suppliers
"Pfizer for example, has two stakeholder specific engagement policies: Pfizer's Global Policy on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals and Pfizer Principles for Working in Partnership with Patient Advocacy Groups. Both identify the key principles that should underpin engagement with health care professional and Patient advocacy groups respectively (Pfizer Inc., 2007). Neither policy however is of a high quality. While they both make a commitment to being open about how engagement with stakeholders affects decisions, they do not identify when stakeholders can expect to be engaged in company decision making, or provide assurance that pharmaceutical companies will change policy as a result of engagement" (Pfizer Inc., 2007).