Martin Shkreli: Ethical Leadership In The Healthcare Industry

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Martin Shkreli, When I think of unethical leadership, the first person that comes to my mind is Martin Shkreli. He is a founder and former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. According to BBC, Shkreli was the most hated man in America judging by social media in August. The story behind his unethical behavior lays in rising price of a lifesaving drug overnight by 5000%. The drug is used to treat parasitic infection, which can affect pregnant women, people with HIV and others with weekend immune systems. In one of the healthcare summits, when asked what he’d do differently if he could go back in time prior rising price, he said that he would put the price, even more, higher to make more profits for shareholders. But is CEO responsibility truly to increase profits? What about social responsibility especially in a healthcare industry? …show more content…

Martin Shkreli faced a challenge of privilege and failed it. He used his leadership position to achieve personal material gain(Hackman & Johnson, 2013) and tried to justify it as he had no choice. Of course, there is no doubt that leaders face challenging decisions that might impact employees or customers in a negative way. However, they should always keep in mind ethical standards, because if something is legally acceptable might not mean it’s morally