PER 2015
when the first line medical treatment does not work or the cancer cells re-develop, taking these patented pills would probably be only way to cure the diseases, otherwise they might just be giving up their lives. Therefore, it may involve an element of coercion and apparently, it is not as free as a pharmaceutical company might say. The second objection to the morally acceptable act of charging high price is that the degree of greed of firms has crossed the line of the most basic moral values. Notice that the ethical objection is not an objection to firms gaining profits. It only applies to the case where the manufacturing cost of drug is cheap and that the company definitely has a degree of lowering the price whilst gaining profits and gaining good reputation in the meantime. Because there are so many people in both developing countries like India and developed countries who cannot access medical services, this makes all those pharmaceutical firms’ acts morally wrong. In reality, of course there is no way in which everyone in the world is able to afford the medicine that he or she needs, as resources are finite. In the meanwhile, it is also difficult to justify a price that is regarded as moral or immoral. Perhaps society shall consider the central question behind this discussion; what does an economy actually mean? What is an economy actually for? These questions are not only about how enterprises should act. They are also about how society should be organized. Is an economy just about maximizing welfare? Is an economy just about respecting freedom? Or is an economy just about promoting virtue? In fact, there is rarely a way that can satisfy all three objectives. Take price discrimination in pharmaceutical markets as an example, it allows pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of the entire market by charging prices between different countries calculating each country’s ability to pay. Although for the majority of buyers, the price charged is still well above the marginal cost of supply, some consumers, like people in developing countries, who can now buy the medicine at a lower price may benefit. This may generate positive externalities, for example, improving social welfare and equity in developing countries. The increase in welfare, however, may contradict to the goal of promoting virtue because the drug companies will do all necessary means to avoid drugs leaking back from low-price to high- price marketplaces which also means those people living in high-price marketplaces have to bear a soaring price solely due to geographical reason. On the other hand, enacting laws to prevent price discrimination not only makes it even harder for people in developing countries to access the drugs, it also somehow threatens the autonomy of drug companies and is not respecting the free market. All in all, there are always trade-offs between different economic objectives. The best possible method may be to find an optimum point where it can balance the interest of different stakeholders; government, firms, doctors, general public, as well as fulfilling the different economic objectives; welfare, freedom and virtue. Experts across the world have already been working hard on this pressing issue, solutions like The Medicine Patent Pool 19 has already been implemented with the aim to provide cheaper drugs to patients and to show respect to the patent law at the same time. The Medicine Patent Pool is a United Nations-backed organization offering a public-health driven business model that aims to lower the prices of HIV medicines and facilitate the development of better-adapted HIV medicines such as special formulations for children, through voluntary licensing and patent pooling. Although, apparently, no company is obligated to join this scheme, the 19 The MPP was founded and remains fully-funded by UNITAID, a financing mechanism that targets HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries. In December 2014, UNITAID approved another funding package for MPP to continue its HIV work through 2020. The MPP was the first and is now the only independent patent pool that aims to tackle the issue of access to HIV/AIDS drugs in low-and middle-ncome countries.
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