Patents for pharmaceuticals and other inventions that improve or save lives focus a spotlight on the inherent tension between the benefits for the creator and the benefits to the consumer. That tension is at the heart of intellectual property law. By law, patents allow the companies that hold them to charge whatever the market will bear for their exclusive products. But should they?
The news in 2015 and 2016 was filled with stories of drug makers who suddenly and seemingly without explanation or need raised the prices of drugs to treat serious diseases or respond to anaphylactic reactions. The price hikes were greeted by howls of protest by the public and hearings in Congress, questioning why the law would allow such actions.
ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
• How should a for-profit corporation balance its business needs with the needs of its customers?
• Do companies whose mission is primarily to create products on which lives depend have a greater responsibility to tip the balance toward the consumer more than toward themselves?
• If you were running such a company, looking through the lens of a Biblical worldview, how would you respond?
Sample Solution