DELAND, Fla. – A team of students from Campbell Business School placed first among 16 public and private universities in the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition, Feb. 22-23, hosted by Stetson University. Campbell Business students Sarah Page of Raleigh and Dylan Blackburn of Clinton, both junior economics majors, took home the $2,000 prize. The teams competed in a 20-minute presentation format, followed by five questions. Semifinalists were then chosen from each of the four brackets to compete in shorter eight-minute presentations for the top spot.
“Our students were well-prepared, did an outstanding job with both their long and short presentations, and really knew the case,” said Campbell Business Associate Professor of Economics Dr. Mark A. Steckbeck, who mentored the team and accompanied them to the competition. “The win showed that Sarah and Dylan had the strongest ethical argument for this complex, real-world case.”
The case involved the patent for Restasis, a drug used to treat chronic dry eye. Allergan, the company that owns the patent, transferred ownership rights to the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Tribe in upstate New York in a bid to protect itself from lawsuits brought by three generic drug companies, who wanted Allergan to release the drug’s ingredients. Allergan held that the tribe’s sovereign status would protect them from having to make the ingredients public. The Campbell Business team’s position focused primarily on the principles of conscious capitalism, as well as the fiduciary responsibility of Allergan’s C.E.O., Brent Saunders, to serve the long-run interests of its shareholders.
Dr. Steckbeck noted that this year was only the second time that Campbell Business has taken part in the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition. Page and Blackburn beat teams from a wide range of schools, including Georgetown University, Clemson, Florida State, Elon, and the U.S. Naval Academy.