ABSTRACT

Cultural adjustment, health and ethics dilemmas are really important when considering pharmaceutical businesses on an international basis. Proper health coverage ensures that all people obtain the health services they need without suffering financial hardship when paying for them. This requires a strong, efficient, well-run health system; a system for financing health services; access to essential medicines and technologies; a sufficient supply of well-trained, motivated health workers; and, above all, ethical rules, especially in developing countries (Forster, 1997). In pharmaceutical labs, ethical rules to protect participants in drug trials in Vietnam are one area of concern. For the pharmaceutical industry, the attraction of labs in Vietnam are the lower costs of doing drug trials and development activities so as to enter Southeast Asian markets and a less stringent environmental legislation (waste production and emissions, for example). The main incentive for Vietnam is a promise of advanced medical science and immediate access to the latest medications. However, the process of putting in place a legal and ethical framework to protect participants is not advancing at the same pace in Vietnam as in other countries (Nguyen and Wertheim, 2013). One of the problems is how to implement guidelines between the people taking part in the drug trials and the international pharmaceutical labs in a code of conduct. The research analyzes cultural adjustment and ethics practices of the managers from different perspectives in the pharmaceutical labs. The researchers recently had the opportunity to collect primary data using semistructured, in-depth and group interviews of managers.