There are a lot of different reasons for creating new prescription drugs, but at the same time there are a lot of reasons, aspects, and ethical considerations which affect the cost of development of those drugs. Believing that market price of the new prescription drugs depends on the raw material and the labor involved in the manufacturing process is absolutely wrong as there are a lot of other aspects which impact the cost development of the new prescription drugs.
Ethical aspects play initial role as in many cases the society is protected by the law and the ethical aspects are based on the legislation than on moral issues. Therefore, it may be confirmed that ethical aspects of the development of cost of the new prescription drugs are based on the legal issues which are based on the human rights.
Considering the formation of the cost of the new prescription drugs and its connection with the ethical issues, it is important to address the ethical issues which may impact the creation of the new prescription drugs. First of all, it is important to state that each drug should be tested on people before being offered to the larger audience at the market. Thus, the patients who agree to test the new medicine are usually given in the contexts with ethical complications.
There should be a written contract between the patient and the company who agree on the volunteering prescription. Thus, all the time when the new drugs are tested, the company does not get the profit as coming through a test people do not have to pay (Murray 2004).
Brock and Wikler (2006) are sure that “a full CEA of alternative health programs should take account of all the economic effects on public or private expenditures of the alternative health interventions or programs” (p. 263) and the cost of the new prescription drugs should also be based on the existing programs as in most cases the budgets of the programs depend on the drugs creation.
The economical situation about the impact of the ethical aspects on the cost development of the new prescription drugs is as follows, WHO has the age restrictions when some of the age groups have the priorities over the others. This is the ethical dilemma and it influences the cost development of the new drugs as “fundamental moral objection to giving higher priority to treating those who can be treated at lower net cost because of the economic savings to their employers” (Brock & Wikler 2006, p. 260).
The problem of the healthy benefit should also be covered as the ethical issue which impacts the development of the cost of the new prescription drugs. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that the development of the cost of the new prescription drugs is also impacted by the ethical issues as the drug development depends on the age group of the people and other ethical aspects connected with the human personality. People are to remember that the price on the drugs is ethically grounded.
Reference List
Brock, DW & Wikler, D 2006, “Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation, Research, and New Product Development”, Jamison, DT, Breman, JG, Measham AR, et al. (eds), Disease control priorities in developing countries, Washington (DC), World Bank, 259-270.
Murray, TH 2004, New treatments for addiction: Behavioral, ethical, legal, and social questions, Washington (DC), National Academies Press.