The Opioid Epidemic

This podcase, based on a case study written by Stanford Graduate School of Business professor Ken Shotts and case writer Sheila Melvin, provides an overview of the history and causes of the U.S. opioid epidemic. It begins with a history of pain management, leading into a description of the opioid epidemic's stages and its scale. The case then presents possible causes of the epidemic: misleading marketing by drug companies, kickback schemes, irresponsible physicians and distributors, lobbying, and societal expectations about eliminating pain.

The podcase is designed to inform conversations on business ethics or business & society. In it, we raise questions such as: if a drug company can make a lot of money by selling large quantities of opioids (and get away with it), should it do so, knowing that this will contribute to addiction and deaths of patients? And is it acceptable for companies to lobby against regulation of practices that may be harmful to patients?

This podcase is a production of Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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