Ethics Case Study: Teflaro's Ethical Dilemma

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It is without a doubt that the creation of Teflaro®, followed closely by the FDA approval for pediatric patients last year May, was an enormous milestone for Allergan as a company and for our pharmaceutical industry as a whole. However, I believe that the recent announcement of the 550% price upsurge has truly crossed our ethical boundaries even if such a choice was FDA-approved. Referring back to one of your comments made during our conference this morning, you stated that we must not overlook the uniqueness of Teflaro® in its lightly-saturated market. Even though I well agree with you that Teflaro® currently stands out as one of the scarce drug prescriptions that can cure hypersensitive skin bacteria, it is still abusive for Allergan to adopt such an …show more content…

It is this scheme that formulated the cruel hidden assumption in our industry: if a disease-curing prescription has been introduced to the public, only the wealthier population has priority access due to the astronomical prices. In turn, the low-income patients in impoverished demographics then become our front-line stakeholders who cannot afford this life-saving medicine. Couldn’t we, instead, offer a reasonable and consistent Teflaro® price by cutting back on redundant marketing costs? Couldn't we spare the cost for pediatric patients in developing countries by only cutting 12% of our profit margin? Couldn't we consider lowering the price for poorer tropical countries with higher morbidity rates, such as Nigeria and Gran Chaco, in order to bridge this gap? In my opinion, Allergan as a multibillion-dollar company, should have the most elementary moral obligation to sacrifice a slim of our profit and push towards higher levels of accessibility of Teflaro® to a wider outreach of