Innovation and the Pharmaceutical Industry: Critical Reflections on the Virtues of Profit (Conflicts and Trends: Studies in Values and Policies)

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. Audience Professionals (managers, scientists, lawyers) working in drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. Business ethicists and bioethicists in business, academic, and industry settings. Health policy experts Health lawyers About the Editors iInnovation and the Pharmaceutical 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. Innovation and the Pharmaceutical Industry 4 Contents 6 Preface 6 I. INTRODUCTION 10 Pharmaceutical Innovation and the Market:The Pursuit of Profit and the Amelioration of the Human Condition 10 II. THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF PURSUING PROFIT 26 The Unavoidable Goodness of Profit: The Cunning of Reason and the Realization of HumanWell- Being 26 Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics in the Pharmaceutical Industry 42 Pharmaceutical Companies and Their Obligations to Developing Countries: Psychopaths or Scapegoats? 55 III. AUTONOMY, ADVERTISING, AND PHARMACEUTICAL COSTS 76 Autonomy, Constraining Options, and Pharmaceutical Costs 76 Pharmaceutical Advertising and Patient Autonomy 89 IV. SOME CRITICISMS OF THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRYCRITICALLY RE-EXAMINED 109 Why America Does Not Have a Second Drug Problem 109 Global Drug Innovationin a World of Financial Finitude: Retailing Virtue to Promote Capital Formation and Profit 137 V. MARKETS, PHARMACEUTICALS, AND HEALTH SAVINGSACCOUNTS 162 Time, Money and the Market for Drugs 162 Perils of Parallel Trade: Reimporting Prescription Drugs from Canada to the US 193 VI. PHARMACEUTICAL LIABILITY: ANOTHER SOURCE OFHEALTH CARE COSTS 202 Risk, Responsibility, and Litigation 202 Contributors 240 Index 242 Innovation and the Pharmaceutical Industry......Page 4 Preface......Page 6 Pharmaceutical Innovation and the Market:The Pursuit of Profit and the Amelioration of the Human Condition......Page 10 The Unavoidable Goodness of Profit: The Cunning of Reason and the Realization of HumanWell- Being......Page 26 Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Ethics in the Pharmaceutical Industry......Page 42 Pharmaceutical Companies and Their Obligations to Developing Countries: Psychopaths or Scapegoats?......Page 55 Autonomy, Constraining Options, and Pharmaceutical Costs......Page 76 Pharmaceutical Advertising and Patient Autonomy......Page 89 Why America Does Not Have a Second Drug Problem......Page 109 Global Drug Innovationin a World of Financial Finitude: Retailing Virtue to Promote Capital Formation and Profit......Page 137 Time, Money and the Market for Drugs......Page 162 Perils of Parallel Trade: Reimporting Prescription Drugs from Canada to the US......Page 193 Risk, Responsibility, and Litigation......Page 202 Contributors......Page 240 Index......Page 242 Pharmaceutical innovation and the market: the pursuit of profit and the amelioration of the human condition / H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. & Jeremy R. Garrett The unavoidable goodness of profit: the cunning of reason and the realization of human well-being / H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr Corporate social responsibility and business ethics in the pharmaceutical industry / Nicholas Capaldi Pharmaceutical companies: psychopaths or scapegoats / Pepe Lee Chang Autonomy, constraining options, and pharmaceutical costs / James Stacy Taylor Pharmaceutical advertising and patient autonomy / Andrew I. Cohen Does America have a second drug problem? / Richard A. Epstein Global drug innovation in a world of financial finitude: retailing virtue to promote Capital formation and profit / Michael A. Rie Time, money, and the market for drugs / John C. Goodman Perils of parallel trade: reimporting prescription drugs from Canada to the U.S. / John R. Graham Risk, responsibility, and litigation / Sandra H. Johnson & Ana Smith Iltis.