Articles on Pharmacy Ethics, Pharmaceutical Industry Ethics

Articles on Pharmacy Ethics, Pharmaceutical Industry Ethics: "“Ethics, Pricing and the Pharmaceutical Industry” by Richard A. Spinello

Spinello discusses the merits of both free market and government regulated drug pricing, concluding that each approach has insurmountable problems associated with it: government regulated pricing is self-defeating, and the free market model allows prices to rise to an unreasonable level. Instead, Spinello proposes that pharmaceutical companies adopt a Rawlsian theory of distributive justice. By adopting this theory, life-saving drugs would be considered equal to “primary social goods” that ought to be afforded to every person. Thus, the ethically minded corporation should try to fairly distribute life-saving drugs at a reasonable cost, while still maintaining reasonable profits. Spinello further introduces a model that serves as a guide for pharmaceutical companies to help determine the just distribution of life-saving and non-life-saving drugs."

posted by Robert Heard at 1:30 PM