According to a McGill University research team, the amount of visits to the Emergency Departments from anaphylaxis over the past four years has doubled at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. The demand of EpiPens is rising making them a hot commodity. CBC reported that in Canada, the price is fixed with no changes. However, the price of EpiPens in the United States has sky rocketed up 400 per cent. Social responsibility on behalf of the government and companies in the United States and Canada differ greatly.

Pfizer Canada, a common biopharmaceutical company said they had no plans on changing the price of their EpiPens. The drugs price is regulated by the Patent Medicine Prices Review Board in Canada. It is the social responsibility of the company to keep prices low thus allowing them to be accessible to Canadians. Then, it’s the governments’ jobs to regulate the cost. Although price could increase with demand creating a larger profit margin the customers in need would be taken advantage of. The interest is in the consumer and not the stockholders or employees. The same can not be said for EpiPens in the United States.

Hilary Clinton tweeted that, “There’s no justification for these price hikes.”, when referring to the EpiPen cost rise. As the product has gone unchanged for the past eight years there is no need to increase the price. Mylan Pharmaceuticals is focusing on expanding their profit margin which reaps great benefits for the stockholders and employees yet, strains the consumers’ wallets. There is no ethical responsibility within the company with seemingly no action taken by the government to stop them. A poor reputation has been placed on the pharmaceutical industry in the United States.

The contrary approaches Canada and the United States have on pricing EpiPen proves their stance on social responsibility. Regulations that are set in Canada protect buyers while Americans are left to fight against the big companies. With the surging anaphylaxis visits amoung children action needs to be taken promptly to protect EpiPen users.

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela

Sources:

News, C. (2016, August 24). Drug price hikes can damage company reputations: White House on EpiPen furor. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/epipen-price-1.3734214

Increasing cases of anaphylaxis among children. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/increasing-cases-anaphylaxis-among-children-260563

Account, H. C. (2016, November 09). Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton). Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fnews%2Fhealth%2Fepipen-price-1.3734214

A quote by Nelson Mandela. (n.d.). Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/117480-there-can-be-no-keener-revelation-of-a-society-s-soul