We live in a world where most people view money/success and making the world a better place as two completely separate ideas. As business students, we all hopefully recognize that this is simply not true; however, there are instances that seem to perpetrate this stereotype. An example of this is Mylan Pharmaceuticals which sells Epi Pens across the United States. One would think that such a necessary commodity would be free of charge and covered by a nation-wide healthcare plan; however, the United States lacks a strong coverage system as compared to Canada. The article I delved into was written by the CBC and can be found here. To sum it up, Mylan Pharmaceuticals has quadrupled the price of Epi Pens in the past 8 years, bringing the price to $600 USD for a pack of two. This type of price is absurd as anyone with severe allergies can literally die without one. By raising the price of Epi Pens, the economic divide currently seen in the United States may become a manner of life and death.

 

This way of making a profit for a business is extremely unethical and harmful to people who need the medication. If media outlets spread this information around (which already has been happening, in this article), they could potentially make a dent in the company’s credibility and further decrease their profits. The increase in pricing of this item for the sake of profit coupled with public awareness would become a lose-lose situation. This could have all been avoided with Mylan utilizing good business ethics. Here in Canada, a company called Pfizer Canada has a licence through Mylan. A spokesperson for the company has stated that “the price has not changed and there are no plans to do so.”

 

As a more personal example of the importance of business ethics, we have to look no further than our own school. Every faculty seems to have stereotypes about Sauder students and many appear to believe that we’re only in this program to make the most money possible. During Imagine Day, the Dean of Sauder, Robert Helsley showed us examples of businesses that have gone on to make the world a better place, all of which were founded by Sauder students. All those people he mentioned are not only successful financially, but their incredible business ethics have contributed vastly to our society in an extremely positive way. After all, as we learned in the second class of Comm101, teamwork is more important in the long-run than the success of an individual.

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