Discuss the tension between ethical actions and legal actions. Some tactics might be legal but unethical. What should an executive do when faced with this tension? What would you do$?$

Purdue Pharma's significant innovation was the time$-$released version of codeine, which led to OxyContin. Purdue Pharma promoted the drug as less addictive, a claim the FDA approved. Yet, the claim was phony. It was based not on a scientific study but on a small anecdotal sample described in a letter to the editor of a leading medical journal $($JAMA$,$ or Journal of the American Medical Association$).$ When do marketing claims become unethical?

In ChapterCase $12,$ we learned that two Theranos executives, Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani, will face prison for committing fraud. Yet, not a single death was caused by Theranos' medical devices. In contrast, over $1$ million Americans have died of despair, with most of those deaths directly or indirectly related to opioid addictions, which started with OxyContin's marketing push. None of the Sacklers has been convicted, nor have they lost the billions they stashed away in overseas trusts. Where is the justice? How do you assess this situation, especially since many of the Sackler family members held similar executive positions at Purdue Pharma as Holmes and Balwani at Theranos? And both companies were private, not publicly owned stock companies.

The consultancy McKinsey paid $$600$ million to settle investigations for its role in advising Purdue Pharma on how to push OxyContin sales while not admitting any wrongdoing. The senior partners at McKinsey were unhappy because each partner takes a share of the company's profits, which are now $$600$ million less due to the settlement. To show their disapproval, McKinsey partners did not renew the term of their CEO, an unusual occurrence. They argued that McKinsey did nothing wrong and they were entitled to the $$600$ million. And, if it went that far, McKinsey should have fought any lawsuit. Does McKinsey have any blame for the opioid addiction crisis? How do you assess the sentiment of the company's senior partners? What would you do if you were working at McKinsey and were assigned to be part of the Purdue Pharma consulting project? Discuss.