Turing Pharmaceuticals And Its Impact On Society

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An issue in the past year within a privately held company called Turing Pharmaceuticals brought up questions on whether the choice made by the company were ethical or unethical. An article by Steven Brachmann, published on September 24, 2015 gives us an overview of this. Overview: Pyrimethamine, a prescribed medicine for Toxoplasmosis which results from infection with a parasite found in cat feces and contaminated food, which is marketed under the brand name Daraprim was the main substance of this unethical issue. This whole issue started when Turing Pharmaceuticals decided to buy the rights to sell Daraprim from the hand of Impax Laboratories Inc. on August 10, 2015. Soon after obtaining the authority to sell Daraprim, Martin Shkreli, founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill, by more than 5,000 percent. This choice of the company caused an outcry in the public. This greed made him one of public’s number one enemy. Impact on Society: …show more content…

When Shkreli pointed out that it was not profitable for the company to sell the drug at $13.50 a pill, it is clear that he had no intention in being socially responsible. Even though the Martin Shkreli claimed to the press that their plans were to “launch an educational effort to help raise awareness and improve diagnosis for patients with toxoplasmosis” (IPWatchdog.com) there were no later actions. By failing meet the legal, ethical, economic and voluntary responsibilities placed on this company by their stakeholders, Turing Pharmaceuticals failed to meet the commitment of corporate

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