Iowa Western Community College Corporate responsibility Discussion A tale of two cases Consider the contrast between these two cases. For our first case,

Iowa Western Community College Corporate responsibility Discussion A tale of two cases

Consider the contrast between these two cases. For our first case, consider the

Consider this passage from a recent blog article (Links to an external site.) by Rebecca Henderson (Links to an external site.), a business professor at Harvard University:

In September of 2015 Turing Pharmaceuticals, a small start-up with one other product, announced it was raising the price of the generic drug Daraprim (Links to an external site.) from $13.50 to $750 a tablet – an approximately 5000% increase. Daraprim was widely used to treat complications from AIDS. It cost approximately $1/pill to produce had no competition. Anyone wanting to buy Daraprim had to buy it from Turing. The move unleashed a media storm. Martin Shkreli, Turing’s CEO, was vilified in the press and accosted in public. But he was unrepentant. Asked if he would do anything differently, he replied:

“I probably would have raised prices higher… I could have raised it higher and made more profits for our shareholders. Which is my primary duty… No one wants to say it, no one’s proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules, and my investors expect to me to maximize profits, not to minimize them, or go half, or go 70 percent, but to go to 100 percent of the profit curve that we’re all taught in MBA class.”

So that’s the case of Shkreli. Now consider the case of Merck.

Starting in 1987, after developing a drug to cure river blindness, Merck (Links to an external site.) began to manufacture and deliver the drug to those who needed for free, without charge. From a write up of Merck’s efforts:

Today, the Merck Mectizan Donation Program includes partnerships with numerous nongovernmental organizations, governmental organizations, private foundations, the World Health Organization, The World Bank, UNICEF, and the United Nations Development Program. In 1998, Merck expanded the Mectizan Donation Program to include the prevention of elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis) in African countries where the disease coexists with river blindness. In total, approximately 30 million people in 32 countries are now treated annually with Mec­tizan. Merck reports that it has no idea how much the entire program has cost, but estimates that each pill is worth $1.50. The United Nations reports that river blindness may soon be eradicated.

Consider the difference in how to think about moral responsibilities of the corporation is found in Shkreli’s and Merck’s actions.

Some questions
Do you agree with Shkreli’s position stated in the quotation? Is he right in claiming that his primary duty is to shareholders? Further, do you think that this claim–that it’s his primary duty–necessitates raising the price of the drug as much as he did or even at all? Explain.
The actions of Shkreli and Merck at least appear to suggest differing, competing attitudes about the moral responsibilities of business. Do you think that there is, in fact, a differing attitude? If not, explain how their respective actions can exhibit the same attitudes. If so, explain that difference and which attitude you more strongly agree with.
Imagine you’re Shkreli and you are asked what you think about the Merck case. What is your response? Now imagine that you are a representative of Merck and you are asked what you think about Shkreli’s actions. What is your response?
Discussion posting instructions
Post

In your post, answer all of the questions in one of the sets above.

Be sure to (1) state which set you’re answering and then (2) compose a thoughtful, considered response to the questions, explaining your answer in a way that leaves the reader with a good understanding of your thinking.

After you have written your thoughtful response, (3) end your post with a question that you think would need to be answered in light of what you’ve written or by anyone else attempting to answer the question you’ve answered or any other question raised by issue. Doing this encourages the idea that there’s more that needs to be said and thought about in your response, that your response cannot have covered everything and addressed every aspect of the question. A good question is one that would require a thoughtful, reflective paragraph-long responses and could not be answered in a word, phrase, or short sentence. So the question needs to be an open-ended question. It should not just repeat one of the questions above. Nor should it merely ask what the reader thinks of your response. And explain why you’re asking this question. Note that you are not answering your own question; rather you are explaining why you’re asking this question, why it’s an important question to be asked.

Comments

After you have composed and submitted your post, comment on two other posts. Do this by writing thoughtful responses to the question that the posts ask at the end of their post (although you also may certainly comment on anything else in their post that you find interesting, especially if it is connected to your response to their question.)

Note: If you are among the first students to post, there may be none–or not very many–other posts on which to comment. So you may need to return in several days to read and comment on posts by other students.