Bob Selling Unapproved Drugs to US Consumers: Potential Harms - Essay Sample

Introduction

The primary ethical problem in the case of Bob selling Brazilian pharmaceutical products in the United States is the potential harm on the consumers because the drugs have not been vetted by the Federal Drug Agency which has the responsibility of assessing the quality of medicines sold in the American market. Consumer information disclosure is necessary, and selling drugs that are not FDA approved to the American consumers is illegal if all the information regarding the drug safety and reassurance is not provided. Lack of drug safety means that if the drugs are sold in the American market can negatively affect consumer health. Most corporation's primary objective is increasing the shareholder's wealth, which means that the potential of poor drug quality in the absence of standard verification of the FDA is high. Therefore, if Bob plans to ship in the products and provide deceiving information to the consumers on the drug's safety, this is an ethical issue due to inadequate information disclosure.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The Contradiction of the FDA Drug Regulations

Selling and market drugs that have not been approved by the FDA to the consumers is illegal because it contravenes the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act as well as the Controlled Substances Act which controls standard and quality of drugs consumed in the United States.

Solution

Beneficence Marketing and Business Partnerships

Bob should ensure that any product marketing through its networks has benefits to the consumers and does not harm the consumers. Therefore, the decision to market the Brazilian products should have an element of beneficence as a checklist before committing to the opportunity (Salari, Namazi, Abdollahi, Khansari, Nikfar, Larijani, & Araminia, 2013). As such, it is not desirable to market the products due to their potential danger to the consumers because they are not the approved standard by the FDA.

Application of Non-Maleficence

Non-maleficence is an ethical underpinning that emphasizes on actions and decision that do not result in consumer harm in the case of pharmaceutical products. As such, Bob should restrain from economically benefiting at the expense of consumer safety and lack of respect to the law (Salari et al., 2013).

Learning Activity 2

Ethical Issue

Breaking the Laws and Regulations on Pricing: The primary ethical dilemma facing R.U is that as the comptroller he is aware of business malpractice in pricing which is not in the best interest of the government and the American taxpayers. Pricing regulations are essential in securing fairness in contracting business and protecting the interests of the taxpayers. Therefore, overpricing the government is detrimental to the welfare of the taxpayers who deserve the value of their money. Any response to this matter will be difficult for R.U because it contradicts one's loyalty to the employer while keeping quiet on the issue means that R.U lacks moral values of fairness.

Response

Inform the Management and Seek for a Redress of the Pricing Anomaly: R.U should approach the management and seek a review of the weapon system pricing to ensure that it is in line with the organization pricing policy and the taxpayers get the value of their money. Although R.U has the responsibility of being loyal to the employer, there is a great responsibility to act in a manner that is in the best interest of all the stakeholders (Dyrud, 2017). Therefore, an ethical value should not be second to loyalty and R.U should report of the problem and seek its redress which can influence the future ability of the company to win government contracts due to a record of honesty and fairness in pricing.

References

Dyrud, M. A., (2017). Ethics and Whistleblowing: Moral Quandaries. In Washington, Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration, American Society for Engineering Education. Retrieved from http://www.indiana.edu/~ciec/Proceedings_2017/ETD/ETD535_Dyrud.pdf

Salari, P., Namazi, H., Abdollahi, M., Khansari, F., Nikfar, S., Larijani, B., & Araminia, B. (2013). Code of ethics for the national pharmaceutical system: Codifying and compilation. Journal of research in medical sciences: the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, 18(5), 442. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3810583/