Business Research Ethics
Business Research Ethics
Tasha Hughey
RES/351
January 12, 2015
Mr. Grunig
Business Research Ethics
Business ethics is the principles and standards that determine acceptable conduct in business organizations. Unethical business research at work ranges from minor acts of deviance to immoral decisions that result in convictions of employees and company downfalls. Even though ethics is sometimes under looked in business it is an important conduct in the organization for a variety of reasons. Organizations have to ensure that they practice high standards of ethics in the organization. In this paper, I will examine the unethical behavior and conviction of Steve Eaton. He manipulated important safety tests on several potentially new drugs. A UK court found him guilty of illegally altering pre-clinical trial data over six years. Steven Eaton was an employee at Aptuit’s Riccarton firm in their drug discovery and development department in Scotland.
From 2003- 2009 Eaton researched data while working for a drug development firm. The potential product results had to be safe before the product was able to move to clinical trials on human beings. Without passing results on all pre-tests, new potential pharmaceutical products would not make it to human trials. “Eaton, 47, was working at the Edinburgh branch of US pharmaceutical firm Aptuit in 2009 when he came up with the scam” (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2013). Eaton falsified data in order to secure funding for the clinical trials on people. However, his bosses recognized serious abnormalities in his work. This case was later referred to The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) who in turn launched a deeper investigation. This investigation was done to determine the extent of damage these abnormalities caused.
Steve Eaton actions of altering the test results, is a risk to public health and extremely unethical. His actions directly impacted the validity of clinical trials and delayed a number
Tasha Hughey
RES/351
January 12, 2015
Mr. Grunig
Business Research Ethics
Business ethics is the principles and standards that determine acceptable conduct in business organizations. Unethical business research at work ranges from minor acts of deviance to immoral decisions that result in convictions of employees and company downfalls. Even though ethics is sometimes under looked in business it is an important conduct in the organization for a variety of reasons. Organizations have to ensure that they practice high standards of ethics in the organization. In this paper, I will examine the unethical behavior and conviction of Steve Eaton. He manipulated important safety tests on several potentially new drugs. A UK court found him guilty of illegally altering pre-clinical trial data over six years. Steven Eaton was an employee at Aptuit’s Riccarton firm in their drug discovery and development department in Scotland.
From 2003- 2009 Eaton researched data while working for a drug development firm. The potential product results had to be safe before the product was able to move to clinical trials on human beings. Without passing results on all pre-tests, new potential pharmaceutical products would not make it to human trials. “Eaton, 47, was working at the Edinburgh branch of US pharmaceutical firm Aptuit in 2009 when he came up with the scam” (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2013). Eaton falsified data in order to secure funding for the clinical trials on people. However, his bosses recognized serious abnormalities in his work. This case was later referred to The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) who in turn launched a deeper investigation. This investigation was done to determine the extent of damage these abnormalities caused.
Steve Eaton actions of altering the test results, is a risk to public health and extremely unethical. His actions directly impacted the validity of clinical trials and delayed a number
References: British Broadcasting Corporation. (17 April 2013). Scientist Steven Eaton jailed for falsifying drug test results. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22186220 Cooper, D., & Schindler, P. (2011). Business Research Methods (11th ed.).