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interest of society and pharmaceutical companies are bound together some people might argue. They still have the business social responsibility to help and give something back to the community. On the contrary, some entrepreneurs convince that their only purpose in the economy is to maximise profit, whether consumers can afford the goods or not is not their concern as long as they obtain a bigger profit. Instead, it is the job of the government or local council to ensure its citizens can access the drugs. Hence, some economists conclude that it is just the nature of enterprise in free market economy to charge large sums of money and thus is not a question about morality, on the other hand, it is down to the government to subsidise its people to consume the drugs. Notwithstanding there may never be a perfect solution, this does not mean the high price charged by pharmaceutical companies must be just. Yet the debate over this issue is unlikely to end and the opinion on this issue is very subjective. There is one thing for certain; “Greed is a vice, a bad way of being, especially when it makes people oblivious to the suffering of others” 20 . Hence, all things considered, it is morally unacceptable to satisfy one’s greedy desire at the expense of human lives but it is also economically understandable to charge large sums of money for drugs that are cheap to manufacture. References and further reading: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26787-expensive-cancer-drugs-pushed-off-englands-nhs- list.html#.VXc1klsf9AQ http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/19/expensive-drugs-cost-business-healthcare-rare-diseases.html http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cost-to-develop-new-pharmaceutical-drug-now-exceeds- 2-5b/?print=true http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27130098 http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DevelopmentApprovalProcess/HowDrugsareDevelopedandApproved/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2012/02/10/the-truly-staggering-cost-of-inventing- new-drugs/2/
20 ‘Justice: What’s the right thing to do?’ written by Michael Sandel.
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