The Pharmaceutical Industry: C
For years the pharmaceutical industry has been branded as being a greedy, evil business that is out to make huge profits at the expense of the common working person. But is it their fault that they spend millions of dollars researching these new medicines that can add years to thousands of people's lives. No, we believe that making senior citizens that are living on social security spend hundreds even thousands of dollars a month is absurd. Granted there are some drugs that cost hundreds of dollars to produce but there are also some that are very inexpensive and cost the public over 100% of the production costs. Is this bad ethics by these companies or capitalism working at its best? The pharmaceutical industry believes it to be simple supply and demand, while mostly everyone else believes it to be preying on the old and weak. One of these pharmaceutical companies is Abbott Laboratories. In 1888 Wallace Abbott began his business by producing dosimetric granules. Soon his small operation grew into Abbott Laboratories in 1900. From then on Abbott Laboratories has continued to grow into one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world with operations in more than 50 countries. Abbott Laboratories now engages in the
The stereotypical way of a pharmaceutical company is profits come first and the people come second but this is not true. After the terrorist in New York on September 11th Abbott Laboratories donated two million dollars to the Sept. 11 Fund to help out those who were affected in the attacks. Something like this in a time of need, like we are in now helps increase the public perception of Abbott and the pharmaceutical industry. Abbott was also included in Working Mothers magazine list of 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. Allowing the employees to bring their children to a free daycare at work is a great idea because the parent will feel that their child is safe and only a few feet away and the public sees this as a company cares about people and not profits. What really makes the pharmaceutical industry incredible immoral is their lack of compassion and rightness. Abbott came up with this great way to make even more money. Instead of reimbursing partial credit to pharmacists for outdated goods they decided to only credit them "1% of their gross purchase" (Fleming). Now the pharmacist has to get ride of the older drug quickly so that they don't lose any money. The worst thing though for Abbott had to be the misdiagnosed cancer of Jennifer Rufer. One of their pregnancy tests showed elevated levels of HCG hormones, which either means your pregnant or you have cancer. When the doctor could not fide a fetus they assumed she had cancer. After chemotherapy and a hysterectomy that she didn't need the doctors realized they were wrong and that it was because of Abbott. Abbott claimed that it wasn't their fault because its only a pregnancy test and not a cancer diagnoser. The bad thing is that they are now seen with the words "misdiagnosed cancer" which to the public makes it seems like it was their fault. discovery, development, manufacture, and sale of a broad and diverse line of healthcare products and services. Also they have expanded and merged with companies like BASF and Medisense, Inc. to increase its share in the pharmaceutical industry. Because many of their drugs have patents and there is no competition they are able to charge what every prices they want and when anyone complains they can just say that they are trying to make back the money that research and development cost. Its not the insurance companies fault that they wont pay for these drugs it's the drug companies fault. In June, Abbott along with 20 drug companies were investigated by the U.S. J
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1683
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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