Ethics Case Study
Ethics Case Study
Merck & Company invested millions of dollars to develop a treatment for river blindness, a disease of the developing world that has infected 18 million people and poses a risk for 127 million people. River blindness is caused by the bite of black flies that deposit larvae of a parasite under the skin of their victims. When the larvae mature into adult worms, the adults reproduce millions of the immature forms of the parasites that migrate throughout the tissues of the body causing severe and never-ending itching and lesions in the skin. These parasites eventually reach the eyes causing an inflammatory reaction that slowly destroys the eye tissue. Victims of the disease are unable to be productive. The disease is especially prevalent in areas of Africa and South America. In Cameroon, for instance, 95% of the children between the ages of 5 and 7 who were examined carried the parasite.
Because of the devastation the disease causes, Merck decided to produce it even though it would not financially profit from doing so. When no government or aid organization stepped forward to buy the drug, Merck pledged to supply the drug free forever. When Merck recognized that no effective mechanism existed to distribute the drug, they went far beyond industry practice and organized a committee to oversee distribution. Hailed as one of the best managed U.S. companies, Merck believes such decisions serve its own long-run interests.
It takes $200 million in research and 12 years to bring the average drug to market; the decision to pursue research is a complex one. Since resources are finite, dollars and time have to go to projects that hold the most promise, in terms of both making money so a company can continue to exist and alleviating human suffering. This is an especially delicate issue when it comes to rare diseases, when a drug company's investment could probably never be recouped because the number of people who would buy the drug is so small. The
Merck & Company invested millions of dollars to develop a treatment for river blindness, a disease of the developing world that has infected 18 million people and poses a risk for 127 million people. River blindness is caused by the bite of black flies that deposit larvae of a parasite under the skin of their victims. When the larvae mature into adult worms, the adults reproduce millions of the immature forms of the parasites that migrate throughout the tissues of the body causing severe and never-ending itching and lesions in the skin. These parasites eventually reach the eyes causing an inflammatory reaction that slowly destroys the eye tissue. Victims of the disease are unable to be productive. The disease is especially prevalent in areas of Africa and South America. In Cameroon, for instance, 95% of the children between the ages of 5 and 7 who were examined carried the parasite.
Because of the devastation the disease causes, Merck decided to produce it even though it would not financially profit from doing so. When no government or aid organization stepped forward to buy the drug, Merck pledged to supply the drug free forever. When Merck recognized that no effective mechanism existed to distribute the drug, they went far beyond industry practice and organized a committee to oversee distribution. Hailed as one of the best managed U.S. companies, Merck believes such decisions serve its own long-run interests.
It takes $200 million in research and 12 years to bring the average drug to market; the decision to pursue research is a complex one. Since resources are finite, dollars and time have to go to projects that hold the most promise, in terms of both making money so a company can continue to exist and alleviating human suffering. This is an especially delicate issue when it comes to rare diseases, when a drug company's investment could probably never be recouped because the number of people who would buy the drug is so small. The