Ethics And The Pharmaceutical Industry

Despite the pharmaceutical industry's notable contributions to human progress, including the development of miracle drugs for treating cancer, AIDS, and heart disease, there is a growing tension between the industry and the public. Government officials and social critics have questioned whether the multibillion-dollar industry is fulfilling its social responsibilities. This doubt has been fueled by the national debate over drug pricing and affordable healthcare, and internationally by the battles against epidemic diseases, such as AIDS, in the developing world. Debates are raging over how the industry can and should be expected to act. The contributions in this book by leading figures in industry, government, NGOs, the medical community, and academia discuss and propose solutions to the ethical dilemmas of drug industry behavior. They examine such aspects as the role of intellectual property rights and patent protection, the moral and economic requisites of research and clinical trials, drug pricing, and marketing.

As one of the most massive and successful business sectors, the pharmaceutical industry is a potent force for good in the community, yet its behaviour is frequently questioned: could it serve society at large better than it has done in the recent past? Its own internal ethics, both in business and science, may need a careful reappraisal, as may the extent to which the law - administrative, civil and criminal - succeeds in guiding (and where neccessary contraining) it. The rules of behavior that may be considered to apply to today's pharmaceutical industry have emerged over a very long period and the process goes on. Even the immensely detailed standards for quality, safety and efficacy laid down in drug law and regulation during the second half of the twentieth century have their limitations as tools for ensuring that the public interest is well served. In particular, national and regional regulatory agencies are heavily dependent on industrial data for their decision-making, their standards and competence vary, and even the existing network of agencies does not cover the entire world. What is more there are many areas of law and regulation affecting the industry, concerning for example the pricing of medicines, the conduct of clinical studies, the health protection of workers and concern for the environment. In some fields it is indeed hardly possible to maintain standards through regulation. Professor N.M. Graham Dukes, a physician and lawyer with long term experience in industrial research management, academic study and international drug policy, provides here a powerfully documented analysis into the way this industry thinks, acts, and is viewed, and examines the current trends pointing to change. *Provides a balanced picture of the current role of the pharmaceutical industry in society *Includes indices of conventions, laws, and regulations; as well as judicial and disciplinary cases *This is the only book addressing the legal implications of big pharma activities and ethical standards

For decades, medical professionals have been betraying the public's trust by accepting various benefits from the pharmaceutical industry. Drug company representatives and doctors alike have promulgated creative rationalizations to portray this behavior positively, as if it really serves the interest of the public. In Hooked: Ethics, the Medical Profession, and the Pharmaceutical Industry, Howard Brody claims that we can neither understand the problem, nor propose helpful solutions until we fully recognize the many levels of activity that connect these two industries. Then, for real improvement to occur, the doctors themselves need to not only change their behavior, but also change how they view the actions of their peers and colleagues. We can pass laws and enact regulations, so that those physicians that do choose to focus on ethics won't be in an environment where they feel as if they are swimming against too strong a current to make meaningful change, but ultimately a profession has to take responsibility for its own integrity.

Pharmaceutical Ethics is an important text, which aims to provide the ethical guidelines much needed by the pharmaceutical industry. By focusing on many of the central issues such as the ethical aspects of clinical trials, informed consent, physician or patient choice and pharmaceutical advertising, this text will provide very good coverage of an area which perhaps still lacks coherent instruction. * Covers ethical issues involved in the testing and use of pharmaceuticals on human beings * Investigates issues such as whether choice of drug should lie with the physician or the patient * Looks at a wide variety of subjects connected with pharmaceutical ethics. * Focuses specifically on the issues surrounding the pharmaceutical industry, not medicine in general. * Fulfils an important need in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

This book is a discussion of the ethical dilemmas of drug industry behavior. It examines such aspects as the role of intellectual property rights and patent protection, the moral and economic requisites of research and clinical trials, drug pricing, and marketing.

DIVAnthropological study of the globalization of pharmaceuticals and its effects on local cultures, health, and economics./div

Innovation and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Critical Reflections on the Virtues of Profit examines the central role of profit in the development of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health care generally. Recent efforts to understand this role have often underestimated and even dismissed its importance, arguing for its replacement by other means and mechanisms. However, as the essays in this volume attest, it would be impossible to account adequately for the range of pharmaceuticals and medical devices that have become part of everyday medicine without recognizing that the depth and scope of innovations are tied not simply to altruism, a concern for the common good, or the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, but crucially to the pursuit of private good and of individual profit. Balancing a concern for theory and practice, the analyses and evaluations provided in these essays touch directly on many of the most heated and important debates in pharmaceutical ethics, such as profit margins, corporate social responsibility, drug advertising, litigation, patents, and parallel trade. Reflecting critically on the problems and prospects of medical innovation, they invite a rethinking of the foundations of the bioethics and business ethics of the pharmaceutical and medical device industries by focusing on the long-term impact of policy decisions for human health and well-being.