Summary

Corporate Responsibility is a crucial concept in the pharmaceutical industry, especially for research-based pharmaceutical companies. Companies are faced with a tension between fulfilling normative expectations of solidarity and making profits under the pressure of competition. We argue that the seemingly plausible strategy to realize corporate responsibility as corporate philanthropy is systematically misleading and, in the long run, undermining the legitimacy of the core business. Instead, pharmaceutical companies should demonstrate their corporate responsibility by investing in their licence to operate, that is, by preventing possible conflicts between profits and morals. This requires not only investments in governance structures but also the ability to communicate the legitimacy of making profits as well as their corporate integrity.