Despite landmark financial penalties in the recent $3 billion GlaxoSmithKline settlement, some maintain that fines are not enough to discourage unethical behavior and malfeasance in corporate conduct. Rather, responsibility must be placed upon individuals in order to effect long-term change.

A recent New York Times article discusses individual criminal prosecution and barring pharmaceutical executives from taking part in Medicaid and Medicare programs as more effective means of reforming the industry. The article states that

"...to institute real change, executives must be prosecuted criminally or barred from participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, an action known as 'exclusion.'

This has occurred in only a handful of cases, and rarely in a case involving a major pharmaceutical company. In 2011, four executives of the medical device company Synthes were sentenced to less than a year in prison for conducting clinical trials that were not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration."

The GlaxoSmithKline settlement involves a “corporate integrity agreement,” which places emphasis on the role of individual company leaders in illegal activity and punishes their involvement. Part of this agreement is an “executive financial recoupment” program that calls for the withdrawal of bonuses and other financial incentives when executive and/or their employees are found guilty of participating in unethical or illegal behavior.

Phillips & Cohen attorney Erika Kelton, who represented two key whistleblowers in the Glaxo case, approves of this agreement as a step in the right direction. Kelton says that this “creates pressure and it creates an element of responsibility."

For more information on the role of whistleblowers in the GlaxoSmithKline settlement, please visit http://www.glaxowhistleblowers.com/.