Case Study Of Merck's Case

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Recommended: Ethical issues within the pharmaceutical industry

Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and that was established in 1891, is currently facing disputes of ethical dilemmas and federal charges of fraud from the whistleblowers. In the pharmaceutical industry, Merck has had a government-granted monopoly by which it was given exclusive license to be the sole manufacturer and seller of a mumps vaccine in the U.S. Thus, its’ potential competitors are excluded from the market by law. The first FDA approved vaccine was developed from the mumps virus that infected a five year-old girl, Jeryl Lynn, in 1967. Nevertheless, as of today, Merck continues to use Jeryl Lynn strain of the virus for its vaccine, which is no longer providing patients with an adequate level of protection. …show more content…

And yet, some doctors and federal agencies even blindly supported Merck’s vaccines. By doing that, they attempted to maximize their profit and took advantage of the patients who are being injected with MMR vaccines without the awareness of its actual effectiveness. In the eyes of those businessmen, they did not owe responsibility to those patients as they believed that they deserved the benefits of their hard work. They thought patients were the ones who were willing to be injected under free will and it was their responsibility to undertake the consequences. They ultimately ranked their success in business over the well-being of the whole community. According to Rawl, Justice is the balance between collective equality and individual freedom. It is critical for one to be granted with his/her freedom; however, if it interferes with other people’s freedom, then the justice system becomes out of balance. By concealing the fact, Merck has taken away the patient’s freedom of choice to determine what is in fact truly beneficial for them and provide equal access to knowledge. Therefore, the idea of a free market should be overridden when taking into consideration personal welfare. Merck should not put patients’ health at risk in exchange for their own profits. Additionally, it is not fair that Merck relied on its fraudulent practices to earn millions of dollars, because they are not getting its deserved justice for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization and having the monopoly of the

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