Merck and Co., River Blindness
Merck and Co., River Blindness
Ethical Case Analysis
Lennard de Jong
Excelsior College
Author Note
This paper was prepared for Business Ethics, Ethical Case Analysis, taught by Dr. Moser.
Introduction and Situational Analysis
The ethical dilemma in Merck and River Blindness is whether to pursue research that may or may result in profit, or to choose the safe option and go for profit rather than researching the drug. The drug could possibly lead to curing the deadly and detrimental disease known as River Blindness. The drug would kill the parasites that cause the disease. The qualm to this is that, the consumers of the drug could not pay for the medication. This would result in no profit. This is the flip side of the “orphan” drug dilemma (Nelson, & Trevino, 2011). Merck and Co.’s philosophy was, “We try never to forget that medicine is for people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered that, the larger they have been.” (Nelson, & Trevino, 2011). This is the core of their value system. Going off this core value, Merck and Co. should be more inclined to create the drug despite the seeming lack of profit.
Aspects that had led to the quandary are the lack of profit and the pressure of the ethical qualm of creating a helpful drug. “Onchocerciasis is a parasitic disease caused by the filarial worm Onchocerca volvulus. It is transmitted through the bites of infected blackflies of Simulium species, which carry immature larval forms of the parasite from human to human. In the human body, the larvae form nodules in the subcutaneous tissue, where they mature to adult worms. After mating, the female adult worm can release up to 1000 microfilariae a day. These move through the body, and when they die they cause a variety of conditions, including blindness, skin rashes, lesions, intense itching and skin depigmentation” ("Onchocerciasis,").
Ethical Case Analysis
Lennard de Jong
Excelsior College
Author Note
This paper was prepared for Business Ethics, Ethical Case Analysis, taught by Dr. Moser.
Introduction and Situational Analysis
The ethical dilemma in Merck and River Blindness is whether to pursue research that may or may result in profit, or to choose the safe option and go for profit rather than researching the drug. The drug could possibly lead to curing the deadly and detrimental disease known as River Blindness. The drug would kill the parasites that cause the disease. The qualm to this is that, the consumers of the drug could not pay for the medication. This would result in no profit. This is the flip side of the “orphan” drug dilemma (Nelson, & Trevino, 2011). Merck and Co.’s philosophy was, “We try never to forget that medicine is for people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we have remembered that, the larger they have been.” (Nelson, & Trevino, 2011). This is the core of their value system. Going off this core value, Merck and Co. should be more inclined to create the drug despite the seeming lack of profit.
Aspects that had led to the quandary are the lack of profit and the pressure of the ethical qualm of creating a helpful drug. “Onchocerciasis is a parasitic disease caused by the filarial worm Onchocerca volvulus. It is transmitted through the bites of infected blackflies of Simulium species, which carry immature larval forms of the parasite from human to human. In the human body, the larvae form nodules in the subcutaneous tissue, where they mature to adult worms. After mating, the female adult worm can release up to 1000 microfilariae a day. These move through the body, and when they die they cause a variety of conditions, including blindness, skin rashes, lesions, intense itching and skin depigmentation” ("Onchocerciasis,").
References: Ethics and transparency. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.merck.com/responsibility/ethicsand- transparency/home.html Fighting river blindness. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.merck.com/responsibility/access/access-feature-mectizan.html Nelson, K., & Trevino, L. (2011). Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right. Danvers, Massachusetts: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Onchocerciasis. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://apps.who.int/tdr/svc/diseases/onchocerciasis