Overview
The pharmaceutical industry has come under intense criticism in recent years. One poll found that 70% of the sample agreed that drug companies put profits ahead of people. Is this perception accurate? Have drug companies traded ethics for profits and placed people at risk? In Profits before People? Leonard J. Weber exposes pharmaceutical industry practices that have raised ethical concerns. Providing systematic ethical analysis and reflection, he discusses such practices as compensating physicians for serving as speakers or consultants, providing incentives to physicians to enrol patients as subjects in clinical research, and advertising prescription drugs to the public through the mass media. Weber's critique of the industry is stern. While acknowledging that new industry guidelines are promising, he finds much room for improvement in the way drug companies market their products. Yet Weber makes a strong case that profits and ethics can coexist and that they are not mutually exclusive. In an effort to understand the proper place of commerce in disseminating information about new drugs, the book aims to clarify basic responsibilities and to help identify sound ethical practices.It recognizes that ethics and law are not the same, that having a right is different from doing the right thing, and that taking ethics seriously means recognizing that the law does not answer all questions about what is right. Weber points the way to more demanding standards and better practices that might begin to restore confidence in the drug industry.
Full Product Details
Author: Leonard J. Weber
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Imprint: Indiana University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.50cm
, Height: 1.90cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.476kg
ISBN: 9780253347480
ISBN 10: 0253347483
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 12 April 2006
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: Awaiting stock
Reviews
<p> In this extremely topical text, Weber... takes on two of today's mostcritical issues: business ethics, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, and themarketing of prescription drugs to the general public.... This thoroughly engrossingbook will be important reading for health care practitioners, drug-marketingrepresentatives, and the public at large.... Recommended. Upper-levelundergraduates, graduate students, professionals/practitioners, and generalreaders. -- Choice
Author Information
Leonard J. Weber was on the faculty of the University of Detroit Mercy for more than 30 years. He is now an ethics consultant to healthcare organizations and is author of Business Ethics in Healthcare (IUP, 2001). He lives in Detroit, Michigan.
