Ethics Rankings for Bio-Pharma Companies

Check out this largely-reputation-based ranking of multinational health companies by Covalence: Covalence Ethical Ranking 2008 for the Health Care sector. (Released 2 months ago, in January.)

Rank | Company

1. GlaxoSmithKline
2. Johnson & Johnson
3. Abbott
4. Bristol Myers Squibb
5. Boehringer Ingelheim
6. Novartis
7. Roche
8. Astra Zeneca
9. Eli Lilly
10. Novo Nordisk
11. Aetna
12. Pfizer
13. Baxter International
14. Sanofi aventis
15. Takeda
16. Merck & Co Inc
17. CIGNA Corp
18. WellPoint
19. Medco Health Solutions Inc.
20. Becton-Dickinson
21. Amgen
22. Genentech
23. Boston Scientific
24. UnitedHealth
25. Zimmer Holding
26. Daiichi Sankyo
27. Medtronic
28. Astellas Pharma
29. Wyeth
30. Schering Plough
31. Gilead Sciences Inc

Acknowledging the limitations of such rankings, here's some food for thought:
1) As an investor, which of these companies seems like a good risk?
2) As a potential employee, which of these companies would you be proud to work for?
3) If you were on an ethics board reviewing a research proposal funded by a drug company, which of these companies would make you want to be very, very careful?
4) Which of these companies have particularly good or bad reputations that might not be warranted?
5) What aspects of bio-pharma company ethics might not be well-captured by the kinds of methods groups like Covalence use to assess corporate ethics generally?

(These things are always imperfect. Make sure to take a look at Covalence's methodology.)