History Main / PredatoryBigPharma

* ''Film/SweetGirl'': Ray's wife and Rachel's mother dies of cancer because the company pulls the miracle medication that was curing her in order to make money. [[spoiler:Diana Morgan also turned to the dark side, and away from her initial goal of affordable healthcare, after taking bribes from the company.]]

* Biotechnica from ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' has more than a few shades of this, especially if the "Let You Down" video is any indication. During the video, Sasha Yakovleva learns while doing a hacking run against Biotechnica that [[spoiler:their prescription painkiller Securicine was known to cause neurodegeneration, but that they did not disclose this side effect to the public, leading to the deaths of Sasha's mother and who knows how many others. This angers Sasha enough to leak the info about this to Network 54 at the cost of her life]].

* ''Film/ScannersIIITheTakeover'': The pharmaceutical company itself is not inherently corrupt, [[TyrantTakesTheHelm until]] Helena [[spoiler:kills her father and goes on a crazy killing spree, corrupting the company]].

EvilInc, ToxicInc, and the MegaCorp discover the power of [[ScienceIsBad science]] to make people suffer, and more importantly, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney to make money.]]

Especially in the US, this has become something of a [[StockAesops stock aesop]] and [[AcceptableTargets acceptable target]], generally chosen to show that CapitalismIsBad. The rich, generally urban family, often but not always based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family the real-life Sackler family]], are portrayed as [[RichBitch callous]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney amoral.]] Their {{Greed}} and materialism causes them to wish to make money off the most basic of human experiences: pain (generally the pain from injury). These drugs -- most often opioids -- flood towns, especially poor, rural towns, where people become addicted. It may be a ForcedAddiction. SideEffectsInclude will be name-dropped. They either [[KillThePoor overdose]] or die due to mismanagement. Other panics revolve around the misdiagnosis and wrongful medication of [[ChildrenAreInnocent children]] or other vulnerable populations. This can result in a more "intellectual" justification to say NoMedicationForMe.

As the links may illustrate, this is TruthInTelevision. Having first picked up traction in TheNineties, the attitude has gained mainstream awareness and acceptance in TheNewTens. Examples from before then will usually count as cases of an UnbuiltTrope, though the trope itself does have its roots in cases like the BedlamHouse and the MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate. Older examples were more likely to feature a singular bad apple who used their own drugs for a purpose like [[SerialKiller serial killing.]] They may [[WithholdingTheCure withhold the cure]] or even provide {{Foul Medicine}}s for more money, which can be one reason for a HealthcareMotivation.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': Roxxon, a company with its fingers in many pies, has several {{Evilutionary Biologist}}s working for them, including Sandra Miller, Nathaniel Essex, and Mendel Stromm. This is revealed when it's learned that two teenagers who were presumed dead in a car accident, Tandy Bowen and Ty Johnson, had been taken by Roxxon to do unethical medical experiments, like injecting them with [[AppliedPhlebotinum Dark Matter]] to see what would happen. The result? They become the superhero duo of ComicBook/CloakAndDagger. And in the same issue, we learn that Bombshell was created by experimental drugs provided to her mother by Roxxon while pregnant.

* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' fanfiction ''[[Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon Abraxas]]'': It's implied that pharmaceutical companies are among the parties who hired PrivateMilitaryContractors to try and steal any Titan DNA samples that might be in the [[ElaborateUndergroundBase disused Monarch outpost]], without regard for the civilians who sent an urgent {{distress call}}. Later, several pharmaceutical companies including Bio-Major (who've been subject to scrutiny from Monarch before) acquire a new fertility treatment originally developed by Alan Jonah from [[DraconicAbomination Ghidorah]]'s DNA and greedily sell it to the public for the sake of short-sighted profits [[spoiler:-- which backfires horribly when the part-Ghidorah treatment causes the various women it's used on to give birth to the Zmeyevich]].

** KDH Pharmaceutical, the GreaterScopeVillain of the film, has predicted a major TB epidemic and created Dypraxa in a shameless attempt to exploit the imminent crisis. Earning the support of the British government by building a major factory in Wales, they're using Three Bees to carry out the trials as a buffer, and most of the assassinations are secretly overseen by KDH security boss Crick. On top of being corrupt as hell, they're also extremely fair-weather: [[spoiler:when Three Bees becomes too unprofitable, KDH abandons their partnership and finds a new company to perform the trials -- ironically turning Three Bees CEO Kenny Curtiss into an unexpected ally of Justin.]]

* ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic''. The MegaCorp [=PharmaKom=] produces a treatment for the disease NAS (Nerve Attenuation Syndrome) that earns it a great deal of money. During the course of the film, it tries to violently suppress a permanent cure for NAS that would reduce the number of customers for the treatment and its profits.

* ''Film/ScannersIIITheTakeover'': The pharmaceutical company itself is not inherently corrupt, [[TyrantTakesTheHelm until]] Helena [[spoiler:kills her father and goes on a crazy killing spree, corrupting the company.]]
* ''Film/SideEffects'': Every which way. At first, this appears to be a more straightforward story about the severely depressed Emily, who is put on Ablixa by Banks, a haughty doctor who has taken money from pharmaceutical companies, [[spoiler:only for her to kill her husband while under its effects.]] It's then revealed that [[spoiler:while Banks ''is'' taking money from Big Pharma, Emily is conspiring with her former therapist Dr Siebert to drive down and then inflate the price of Ablixa in order for them to make millions together. She killed her husband and frames multiple people for this scheme.]] However, at the end, [[spoiler:Banks proves he's NotSoAboveItAll by placing Emily in an essential permanent coma of emotional torture for framing him, scheming against him, and killing Martin all for money.]]

* ''Film/TheThirdMan'' features an UnbuiltTrope example of an individual bad actor pulling a medical scam. The government bureaucracy in post-WWII Vienna is so tangled that the hospitals have given up on official channels and resort to buying much-needed medicine on the black market. The villain ([[spoiler:Harry Lime]]) sold penicillin on that black market--then realized he could make more profit by watering down the penicillin, making it useless as an antibiotic.

* The Healing Tower in ''Literature/DoctorPlayer'' is the fantasy version of this trope. They manage and watch over all [[HealingHands Healers,]] assign them ranks, so on and so forth. They see no problem with the ''exorbitant'' price of high rank healing that only nobles can afford, while the poor and commoners are left with lower rank healers that can't even garantee their survival, as they also refuse to acknowledge that Heal isn't the solution to everything. When [[DeterminedDoctor Raymond]] introduces modern medicine and surgery at a low fee, which would save ''tons'' of lives, they see it as witchcraft and try to slander his reputation multiple times.

* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'': Breck Scott is a pharmaceutical CEO who peddled a false cure, Phalanx, for the zombie virus. He is a [[GigglingVillain giggling]] sociopath who feels zero remorse for his role in events and is proud of the fact that he made billions on a phony cure that almost certainly led to a lot more deaths (as it gave those who took it a sense of artificial safety). However, he's in the JerkassHasAPoint land, because although he's an unrepentant monster, he does perhaps have a point that the government could have stopped him (they chose not to) and that the [[TheGhost unnamed reporter]] who revealed that Phalanx was phony then immediately led to the Great Panic, which directly caused thousands of deaths in the U.S.

* In ''Series/TheBoys'', the company Vought is this combined with VillainWithGoodPublicity, as they hold a sizable presence in most markets and have created superheroes (most notably the Seven) to take out huge threats (though they are treated more like marketable celebrities). What the public doesn't know [[spoiler:is that Vought was founded by a Nazi who escaped imprisonment after WWII due to making a deal with the American government and creating [[SuperSerum Compound V]], which (if injected into a fetus) allows a person to be born with superpowers). ]]

* ''Series/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher2023'': The Ushers are a "crime family" who made billions from pharmaceuticals [[spoiler:after a DealWithTheDevil...or some malignant presence. Verna is a spirit of vengeance who is determined to rip through all the Usher heirs and kill them, innocent and guilty alike, in revenge for the hundreds of thousands of people they've killed.]] They are portrayed as completely corrupt and amoral, bribing and outright owning any oversight bodies that could stop them, falsifying medical studies, and having built their empire off ''huge'' amounts of false advertising that claim their (addictive) pills are non-addictive.

* ''Series/KamenRiderAmazons'': Downplayed. Nozama Pharmaceuticals managed to create artificial life in the form of the biological homunculi called "Amazons," made using cells that were predatory towards Human DNA. While the science team behind it was proud of their work, the firm's CEO was an EvilutionaryBiologist and prematurely released the 1000-plus specimens into the wild before their protein deficiency could be phased out; effectively letting a horde of cannibalistic monsters (a lot of whom are {{Tragic Monster}}s LivingOnBorrowedTime rather than the animals he wants them to be) loose to satisfy his warped ambitions of making a new ecosystem. Nozama for its part is trying to clean up the mess...by covering as much as they can up while mercenary teams in the single digits hunt the specimens down the hard way.

* ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnitS5E2Manic "Manic"]] involved a school shooter who was under the influence of a new drug that had been wrongly prescribed as the consequence of a greedy pharmaceutical company.

** The episode "The Double Blind Job" has the team uncovering and exposing the plans of a Pharmaceutical CEO. He intends to knowingly sell a deadly drug, reasoning that the profits from it will far exceed any consequences they might receive. Shockingly, this is one of many Leverage plots that were RippedFromTheHeadlines, as described [[http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2010/08/leverage-306-double-blind-job-post-game.html here]]
--->'''Sophie:''' These are not small fines. Last year, my department handled a case where the company had to pay out $2.5 billion.
--->'''Hoffman:''' Oh, yeah. Everybody heard about that. But what the news didn't tell you is that that company made $16 billion on the same drug. That fine was 14% of the profit. 14%. That's like tipping your waiter. "Thank you very much for taking our drugs. Here's a little something for your family." I wasn't hired by Pallagen to cure cancer. I was brought in to take this company to the next level. And Vioplex is gonna do just that.

* ''Series/LeverageRedemption:'' The first episode of the revival series introduces new crew member Harry Wilson as having the primary motivation of wanting Fletcher Maxwell, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Richard Sackler, to pay for his role in the opioid crisis; since Maxwell is above the law due to his wealth and connections, Harry resorts to trying to sabotage an exhibit in his name at the Boston Museum of Art.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' "[[Recap/TorchwoodS2E6Reset Reset]]": The titular organization investigates a biomedical research facility called the Pharm, who are secretly abducting and experimenting on aliens from the Rift to fuel their research and have caused several deaths by using "volunteers" as hosts for a drug that contained a deadly alien parasite as well as hiring an assassin to silence their volunteers. Captain Jack is revolted by the Pharm's mistreatment of the aliens, saying there's a fine line between policing hostile aliens and forcibly using them as lab rats without ethics, and he uses cyberterrorism to wipe out the company and MercyKill their test subjects.

[[folder:Radio]]
* The unnamed "corporation" in the ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' story ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho136Cobwebs Cobwebs]]'' is one. They essentially kicked off the plot of the drama by hiring three researchers, wiping and creating backups of their memories and holding those backups hostage, to find a cure for Richter's Disease, doing gain-of-function experiments on the virus to create an even more virulent strain to release into the wild and creating a vaccine/curative for ''that'' strain to sell at an exorbitant markup.
[[/folder]]

* ''Franchise/DeadRising'' series: Phenotrans is a mysterious pharmaceutical company that has been granted sole right by the US government to manufacture the anti-zombie drug Zombrex. Because zombrex doesn't outright cure a person of being a ZombieInfectee, and can only prevent them from turning with regular doses, Phenotrans' critics often accuse it of deliberately WithholdingTheCure for zombification since it would reduce their customer base. Worse, because the parasitic queen wasps that spread the zombie virus are also used in the drug's manufacture, Phenotrans has no qualms about deliberately causing zombie outbreaks, or making existing ones worse, just so they can breed more wasps to use as raw materials.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'': in the "Los Santos Drug War" DLC Last Dose mission line, [[spoiler:Dr. Friedlander]] has his goons kidnap The Fooliganz' ClandestineChemist Labrat, and after the player shakes down other suspects, they find that Labrat is being held at [=FriedMind=] Pharmaceutical Corporation, and [[spoiler:Dr. Friedlander]] reveals that his plan is to corner the psychedelics market to sell them as therapeutics but with his control.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'', the short story "What You Left Behind" highlights a company called Sainclair Pharmaceuticals, which holds a monopoly over Haiti's pharmaceutical supply, using its leverage over the country to ratchet up its prices following [[RobotWar the Omnic Crisis]], leaving much of the country remaining in disrepair. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Its namesake owner, Vernand Sainclair]], was secretly a mole for [[NebulousEvilOrganization Talon]], who [[EvenEvilHasStandards actually found him so intolerable]] that they send a crew to have him assassinated, though primarily because [[TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil he's been skimping out on payments even as profits have increased]].

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'': The CEO of Cradle Pharmaceuticals, Gentarou Hongou [[spoiler:aka Ace]], had abducted 18 children 9 years prior to the story's events in order to force them into playing the [[DeadlyGame Nonary Game]] as part of an experiment to tap into the Morphogenetic Field.

* ''Literature/GoodOmens'': One of the [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Horsepersons of the Apocalypse]] plays this trope straight (albeit it with a twist), while another [[SubvertedTrope subverts it]]. Famine is reimagined as a brilliant biochemical engineer who is using pharmaceutical labs to create and sell "food" that has absolutely no nutritional content, yet gets people addicted anyway. His old friend Pestilence is the subversion: it turns out that genuinely well-meaning drug companies that manufacture helpful medicines like penicillin have rendered him powerless, so he's retired and passed on his spot in the quartet to a new entity named Pollution.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': PlayedForLaughs with [=ZanGen=], the fictional pharmaceutical company Bernadette [[spoiler:and later Penny]] work for, which is mentioned in passing to have some rather unethical practices. In "The Romance Resonance", for example, Bernadette celebrates a potentially deadly raccoon virus passing the species barrier because it means more money for her company to develop a drug to treat it, and in another episode, she mentions experiments on death row inmates on whether deficiency of a certain enzyme stimulates fear. Downplayed since the company seems morally grey more than out-and-out evil, and are never a main source of conflict in the series.

* Minor villain Gene Carcani and his company Carcani Pharmaceuticals in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs2'' is [[RippedFromTheHeadlines heavily based on]] "Pharma Bro" Martin Skhreli, where both men bought the patent to a life saving medicine and raised the price by seveal hundred percent.

As the links may illustrate, this is TruthInTelevision. Having first picked up traction in TheNineties, the attitude has gained mainstream awareness and acceptance in TheNewTens. Examples from before then will usually count as cases of an UnbuiltTrope, though the trope itself does have its roots in cases like the BedlamHouse and the MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate. Older examples were more likely to feature a singular bad apple who used their own drugs for a purpose like [[SerialKiller serial killing.]] They may [[WithholdingTheCure withhold the cure]] for more money, which can be one reason for a HealthcareMotivation.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': In the main plot of the first season, the investigation of the Laughing Man incident uncovers a massive conspiracy by the Serano Genomics corporation. To start, Serano is [[WithholdingTheCure suppressing all knowledge of the Murai vaccine]] (a cure for the otherwise uncurable disease cyberbrain sclerosis) so they can instead sell costly, long-term nanomachine-based treatments. Worse, some of these nanomachines are actually experimental espionage and military applications, not treatments for cyberbrain sclerosis at all. Serano is, of course, bribing enough politicians to let them get away with using the Japanese public as guinea pigs, and hires assassins to kill anyone who gets too close to the truth.

Especially in the US, this has become something of a [[StockAesops stock aesop]] and [[AcceptableTargets acceptable target]], generally chosen to show that CapitalismIsBad. The rich, generally urban family, often but not always based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sackler_family the real-life Sackler family]], are portrayed as [[RichBitch callous]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney amoral.]] Their {{Greed}} and materialism causes them to wish to make money off the most basic of human experiences: pain (generally the pain from injury). These drugs - most often opioids - flood towns, especially poor, rural towns, where people become addicted. It may be a ForcedAddiction. SideEffectsInclude will be name-dropped. They either [[KillThePoor overdose]] or die due to mismanagement. Other panics revolve around the misdiagnosis and wrongful medication of [[ChildrenAreInnocent children]] or other vulnerable populations. This can result in a more "intellectual" justification to say NoMedicationForMe.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** KDH Pharmaceutical, the GreaterScopeVillain of the film, has predicted a major TB epidemic and created Dypraxa in a shameless attempt to exploit the imminent crisis. Earning the support of the British government by building a major factory in Wales, they're using Three Bees to carry out the trials as a buffer, and most of the assassinations are secretly overseen by KDH security boss Crick. On top of being corrupt as hell, they're also extremely fair-weather: [[spoiler: when Three Bees becomes too unprofitable, KDH abandons their partnership and finds a new company to perform the trials - ironically turning Three Bees CEO Kenny Curtiss into an unexpected ally of Justin.]]

-->'''Breckenridge''': Who was going to blow the whistle? The medical profession? We made sure it was a prescription drug so doctors stood just as much to lose as us. Who else? The FDA who let it pass? The congressmen who all voted for its acceptance? The surgeon general? The White House? This was a win-win situation! Everyone got to be heroes, everyone got to make money. Six months after Phalanx hit the market, you started getting all these cheaper, knockoff brands, all solid sellers as well as the other ancillary stuff like home air purifiers.

* In ''Series/TheBoys'', the company Vought is this combined with VillainWithGoodPublicity, as they hold a sizable presence in most markets and have created superheroes (most notably the Seven) to take out huge threats (though they are treated more like marketable celebrities). What the public doesn't know [[spoiler: is that Vought was founded by a Nazi who escaped imprisonment after WWII due to making a deal with the American government and creating [[SuperSerum Compound V]], which (if injected into a fetus) allows a person to be born with superpowers). ]]

--->'''Sophie''': These are not small fines. Last year, my department handled a case where the company had to pay out $2.5 billion.
--->'''Hoffman''': Oh, yeah. Everybody heard about that. But what the news didn't tell you is that that company made $16 billion on the same drug. That fine was 14% of the profit. 14%. That's like tipping your waiter. "Thank you very much for taking our drugs. Here's a little something for your family." I wasn't hired by Pallagen to cure cancer. I was brought in to take this company to the next level. And Vioplex is gonna do just that.

[[folder: Theatre]]

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': In the main plot of the first season, investigation of the Laughing Man incident uncovers a massive conspiracy by the Serano Genomics corporation. To start, Serano is [[WithholdingTheCure suppressing all knowledge of the Murai vaccine]] (a cure for the otherwise uncurable disease cyberbrain sclerosis) so they can instead sell costly, long-term nanomachine-based treatments. Worse, some of these nanomachines are actually experimental espionage and military applications, not treatments for cyberbrain sclerosis at all. Serano is, of course, bribing enough politicians to let them get away with using the Japanese public as guinea pigs, and hires assassins to kill anyone who gets too close to the truth.

* ''ComicBook/UltimateSpiderMan'': Roxxon, a company with its fingers in many pies, has several {{Evilutionary Biologist}}s working for them, including Sandra Miller, Nathaniel Essex, and Mendel Stromm. This is reveal when it's learned that two teenagers who were presumed dead in a car accident, Tandy Bowen and Ty Johnson, had been taken by Roxxon to do unethical medical experiments, like injecting them with [[AppliedPhlebotinum Dark Matter]] to see what would happen. The result? They become the superhero duo of ComicBook/CloakAndDagger. And in the same issue we learn that Bombshell was created by experimental drugs provided to her mother by Roxxon while pregnant.

* ''Film/TheFugitive'': Richard Kimble discovered that Devlin-[=MacGregor=] was producing the medication Provasic, knowing that the drug causes severe liver damage, and after he uncovered this, [[spoiler:his friend, Charles Nichols, hired the one-armed man to attack him and his wife Helen]].

* ''Film/SideEffects'': Every which way. At first, this appears to be a more straightforward story about the severely depressed Emily, who is put on Ablixa by Banks, a haughty doctor who has taken money from pharmaceutical companies, [[spoiler:only for her to kill her husband while under its effects.]] It's then revealed that [[spoiler:while Banks ''is'' taking money from Big Pharma, Emily is conspiring with her former therapist, Dr Siebert, to drive down and then inflate the price of Ablixa in order for them to make millions together. She killed her husband and frames multiple people for this scheme.]] However, at the end, [[spoiler:Banks proves he's NotSoAboveItAll by placing Emily in an essential permanent coma of emotional torture for framing him, scheming against him, and killing Martin all for money.]]

* ''Film/TheThirdMan'' features an UnbuiltTrope example of an individual bad actor pulling a medical scam. The government bureaucracy in post-WWII Vienna is so tangled that the hospitals have given up on official channels and resort to buying much-needed medicine on the black market. The villain ([[spoiler:Harry Lime]]) sold penicillin on that black market--then realized he could make more profit by watering down the penicillin, making it useless as antibiotic.

* ''Literature/WorldWarZ'': Breck Scott is a pharmaceutical CEO who peddled a false cure, Phalanx, for the zombie virus. He is a [[GigglingVillain giggling]] sociopath who feels zero remorse for his role in events and is proud of the fact that he made billions on a phoney cure that almost certainly led to a lot more deaths (as it gave those who took it a sense of artificial safety). However, he's in the JerkassHasAPoint land, because although he's an unrepentant monster, he does perhaps have a point that the government could have stopped him (they chose not to) and that the [[TheGhost unnamed reporter]] who revealed that Phalanx was phoney then immediately led to the Great Panic, which directly caused thousands of deaths in the U.S.

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': PlayedForLaughs with [=ZanGen=], the fictional pharmaceutical company Bernadette [[spoiler: and later Penny]] work for, which is mentioned in passing to have some rather unethical practices. In "The Romance Resonance", for example, Bernadette celebrates a potentially deadly raccoon virus passing the species barrier because it means more money for her company to develop a drug to treat it, and in another episode she mentions experiments on death row inmates on whether deficiency of a certain enzyme stimulates fear. Downplayed since the company seems morally grey more than out-and-out evil, and are never a main source of conflict in the series.

* ''Series/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher2023'': The Ushers are a "crime family" who made billions from pharmaceuticals [[spoiler:after a DealWithTheDevil...or some malignant presence. Verna is a spirit of vengeance who is determined to rip through all the Usher heirs and kill them, innocent and guilty alike, in revenge for the hundreds of thousands of people they've killed.]] They are portrayed as completely corrupt and amoral, bribing and outright owning any oversight bodies that could stop them, falsifying medical studies, and to have built their empire off ''huge'' amounts of false advertising that claim their (addictive) pills are non-addictive.

* ''Series/KamenRiderAmazons'': Downplayed. Nozama Pharmaceuticals managed to create artificial life in the form of the biological homunculi called "Amazons," made using cells that were predatory towards Human DNA. While the science team behind it was proud of their work, the firm's CEO was an EvilutionaryBiologist and prematurely released the 1000-plus specimens into the wild before their protein deficiency could be phased out; effectively letting a horde of cannibalistic monsters (a lot of whom are {{Tragic Monster}}s LivingOnBorrowedTime rather than the animals he wants them to be) loose to satisfy his warped ambitions of making a new ecosystem. Nozama for its part is trying to clean up the mess...by covering as much as they can up while mercenary teams in the single-digits hunt the specimens down the hard way.

** In the finale, Nate tells an investigator that the whole thing started when the doctor who had treated his late son told him that a pharmaceutical company had ceased production of a drug that was proving successful against a rare form of cancer (the same one that killed his son), and that they needed the samples of the drug to save a patient. The disease was too rare, and the drug wasn't profitable, so it was being shelved. Nate vows to get the existing supplies for them. [[spoiler:This is all actually a lie, but neither the audience nor Sterling know this just yet. In truth, the target is the records of financial corruption and market manipulation that caused the crash of 2008, known as The Black Book. But Nate's history of taking down CorruptCorporateExecutives, and his history of going overboard to protect children after the death of his son makes it a convincing distraction.]]
* ''Series/LeverageRedemption:'' the first episode of the revival series introduces new crew member Harry Wilson as having the primary motivation of wanting Fletcher Maxwell, a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Richard Sackler, to pay for his role in the opioid crisis; since Maxwell is above the law due to his wealth and connections, Harry resorts to trying to sabotage an exhibit in his name at the Boston Museum of Art.
* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Sort-of in Season 5. It's revealed during the last few episodes that demons in [[{{Satan}} Lucifer]] and [[HorsemenOfTheApocalypse Pestilence]]'s employ have infiltrated a pharmaceutical company called Niveus, and they're using the company to test out a new, hyper-virulent strain of the demonic [[TheVirus Croatoan virus]], before they plan to cause a spontaneous U.S.-wide ZombieApocalypse via distributing the virus inside swine flu vaccines across the country all at once. That being said, the company's human staff aren't depicted as evil, they've just been infiltrated by inhuman monsters without realizing it, and several scenes show their staff from warehouse workers to lab scientists to a board-member all being mercilessly cut down by the demons for the sake of the project.
* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' "[[Recap/TorchwoodS2E6Reset Reset]]": The titular organization investigate a biomedical research facility called the Pharm, who are secretly abducting and experimenting on aliens from the Rift to fuel their research, and have caused several deaths by using "volunteers" as hosts for a drug that contained a deadly alien parasite as well as hiring an assassin to silence their volunteers. Captain Jack is revolted by the Pharm's mistreatment of the aliens, saying there's a fine line between policing hostile aliens and forcibly using them as lab rats without ethics, and he uses cyberterrorism to wipe out the company and MercyKill their test subjects.

* ''VideoGame/PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh'': Curtis works for Wyntech, a pharmaceutical company which is clearly an EvilCorp. Company emails mention that they regularly [[ToxicInc pollute the environment]] and peddle dangerous drugs to their customers (one woman who sued them experienced liver failure and her hair turned blue). The CEO, Paul Warner, has opened a portal to an alien dimension and feeds those aliens live humans to synthesize exotic drugs for him. He's planning to market a new one that removes excess body fat but is also hopelessly addictive, apparently intending to enslave people with it.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder: Films - Live-Action]]

* Ray's wife and Rachel's mother dies of cancer in ''Film/SweetGirl'' because the company pulls the miracle medication that was curing her in order to make money. [[spoiler:Diana Morgan also turned to the dark side, and away from her initial goal of affordable healthcare, after taking bribes from the company.]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': PlayedForLaughs with [=ZanGen=], the fictional pharmaceutical company Bernadette [[spoiler: and later Penny]] work for, which is mentioned in passing to have some rather unethical practices. In "The Romance Resonance", for example, Bernadette celebrates a potentially deadly raccoon virus passing the species barrier because it means more money for her company to develop a drug to treat it, and in another episode she mentions experiments on death row inmates on whether deficiency of a certain enzyme stimulates fear. Downplayed since the company seems MorallyGrey more than out-and-out evil, and are never a main source of conflict in the series.
* In ''Series/TheBoys'', the company Vought is this combined with VillainWithGoodPublicity, as they hold a sizable presence in most markets and have created superheroes (most notably the Seven) to take out huge threats (though they are treated more like marketable celebrities). What the public doesn't know [[spoiler: is that Vought was founded by a Nazi who escaped imprisonment after WWII due to making a deal with the American government and creating Compound V, which (if injected into a fetus) allows a person to be born with superpowers). ]]

* ''Series/KamenRiderAmazons'': Downplayed. Nozama Pharmaceuticals managed to create artificial life in the form of the biological homunculi called "Amazons," made using cells that were predatory towards Human DNA. While the science team behind it was proud of their work, the firm's CEO was an EvilutionaryBiologist and prematurely released the 1000-plus specimens into the wild before their protein deficiency could be phased out; effectively letting a horde of cannibalistic monsters (a lot of whom are TragicMonsters LivingOnBorrowedTime rather than the animals he wants them to be) loose to satisfy his warped ambitions of making a new ecosystem. Nozama for its part is trying to clean up the mess...by covering as much as they can up while mercenary teams in the single-digits hunt the specimens down the hard way.

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' "[[Recap/TorchwoodS2E6Reset Reset]]": The titular organization investigate and commit subterfuge against a biomedical research facility called the Pharm, who've been secretly abducting and experimenting on aliens from the Rift to fuel their research, and have caused several deaths by using "volunteers" as hosts for a drug that contained a deadly alien parasite as well as hiring an assassin to silence their volunteers. Captain Jack is revolted by the Pharm's mistreatment of the aliens, saying there's a fine line between policing hostile aliens and forcibly using them as lab rats without ethics, and he uses cyberterrorism to wipe out the company and MercyKill their test subjects.

[[folder: Radio]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Visual Novels]]

[[/folder]]