As the news introduced, EpiPen is a life-saving epinephrine injector which can treat serious allergic reaction and slove deadly emergency; however, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, which owns the brand, has increased the price by more than 400 percent since 2009, “pushing the cost to more than $600 US for a pack of two”. Mylan explained the the spike in the price by saying that “the EpiPen’s price has changed over time to better reflect important product features and the value the product provides.”
From the aspect of business ethics, the action of rising the a life-saving medication excessively is undoubtedly immoral since everyone should have the right to access to such medication and survive an emergert allergy if it realistically appears without being blocked by a hard-reaching and unreasonable price. All the patients are equal and deserve proper treatment; nothing is more important than lives. Stakeholders should not think about making immoral profit by setting exorbitant costs on such serious problems regarding lives and death. The patients who have severe allergies and require to purchase epinephrine injectors like EpiPen include differnt groups of people with varying ages and therefore varying economic capacities and abilities to bear $600 US for two packs. As mentioned in the news, “schools often ask students with severe allergies to bring an auto-injector to school and sometimes ask for a back-up device to deliver the life-saving medication.” In this case, I do not think that such an exorbitant price is affordable to every student while a patient has no choice but to buy the drugs at any price in order to survive, which is a ludicrous tragedy present in medication market.
Medical industry is meant to supply proper medication to patients who need help and care about their health mindfully and kindly. The problem addressed here relating to irrational increase in price rudely breaks the balance between medication providers and receivers. As it causes outrage among American doctors and politicions, mistakes which are present in the chain of price fixing can be clearly seen. For the own rights and benefits of patients instead of the reputation of the brand or company, improvements and regulation are needed. The intervention of the government and relevant associations, such as AMA may help, rather than have a free market.
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reference list:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/epipen-price-1.3734214
http://globalnews.ca/news/2908884/mylan-launching-cheaper-generic-version-of-epipen-in-u-s/
http://www.pharmacytimes.com/publications/issue/2010/july2010/genericproductnews-0710