My IBD article examining the opportunities and challenges facing big pharmas as they seek to expand into emerging markets is up at investors.com (if you subscribe to the paper, it’s in the Monday edition).
There are all kinds of ethical issues I could have written about in this story. For instance, when I interviewed Fred Hassan, the CEO of Schering-Plough (or as I like to call him, “Mr. Plough”), I asked him a bunch of questions about the prices they were going to charge for their drugs (which include extremely unreliable allergy medication Claritin, and many others). The idea was to get him talking about some of the excessive prices charged for prescription drugs in the country, as well as the general structure of HMOs, the health of this country and how we treat health-related issues. I did get some fairly interesting answers, though all of them were tinged with a pro-business stance, with Hassan’s view that his company was finding a good balance between turning a profit and charging fair prices for their products.
And there’s the rub. I’m pro-business, as without profitable enterprises we wouldn’t have jobs. At the same time, I’m not quite as unflinchingly pro-business as many of my colleagues at Investor’s Business Daily. Which makes sense, since IBD is almost pro-business to a fault–doubt hanging over the newsroom over issues like global warming, that kind of stuff. Anyway, writing this article for IBD, it’s going to focus almost entirely on the implications for the pharmaceutical industry, as opposed to the ethics of these companies’ practices. Which is why I’m glad I get to question some of these practices in my own forum, even if mildly.
More broadly, I have to say that it’s not easy being someone who usually opposes government opposition, whether in our day-to-day lives (persecuting people based on sexual orientation, for instance) or in business matters (too much regulation can stunt growth and thus hurt the economy and take away jobs), but not to the point where I’d want to abandon government involvement completely like a hard-core Libertarian (we still need responsible national security, some regulation in business matters to help prevent the Enrons of the world, I’m pro-gun control, etc.).
There’s probably a lot to be said for being someone who’s so far right that he’ll trample all over social issues and basic rights, or someone so left that he’ll blindly label every corporation as evil and avoid showers at all costs. I’m neither of those people. Might be time to find some kind of support group for the socially liberal, (mostly) fiscally conservative set.
And now back to writing a 2,000-word story about my friend’s bachelor party in Vegas for Penthouse.
This entry was posted on 31 May 2008 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Articles, Investor's Business Daily, Random commentary with tags Fiscally conservative, Mr. Plow, Saturday afternoon rambling, Schering-Plough, Socially liberal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
IBD article about pharmaceutical companies and emerging markets
My IBD article examining the opportunities and challenges facing big pharmas as they seek to expand into emerging markets is up at investors.com (if you subscribe to the paper, it’s in the Monday edition).
There are all kinds of ethical issues I could have written about in this story. For instance, when I interviewed Fred Hassan, the CEO of Schering-Plough (or as I like to call him, “Mr. Plough”), I asked him a bunch of questions about the prices they were going to charge for their drugs (which include extremely unreliable allergy medication Claritin, and many others). The idea was to get him talking about some of the excessive prices charged for prescription drugs in the country, as well as the general structure of HMOs, the health of this country and how we treat health-related issues. I did get some fairly interesting answers, though all of them were tinged with a pro-business stance, with Hassan’s view that his company was finding a good balance between turning a profit and charging fair prices for their products.
And there’s the rub. I’m pro-business, as without profitable enterprises we wouldn’t have jobs. At the same time, I’m not quite as unflinchingly pro-business as many of my colleagues at Investor’s Business Daily. Which makes sense, since IBD is almost pro-business to a fault–doubt hanging over the newsroom over issues like global warming, that kind of stuff. Anyway, writing this article for IBD, it’s going to focus almost entirely on the implications for the pharmaceutical industry, as opposed to the ethics of these companies’ practices. Which is why I’m glad I get to question some of these practices in my own forum, even if mildly.
More broadly, I have to say that it’s not easy being someone who usually opposes government opposition, whether in our day-to-day lives (persecuting people based on sexual orientation, for instance) or in business matters (too much regulation can stunt growth and thus hurt the economy and take away jobs), but not to the point where I’d want to abandon government involvement completely like a hard-core Libertarian (we still need responsible national security, some regulation in business matters to help prevent the Enrons of the world, I’m pro-gun control, etc.).
There’s probably a lot to be said for being someone who’s so far right that he’ll trample all over social issues and basic rights, or someone so left that he’ll blindly label every corporation as evil and avoid showers at all costs. I’m neither of those people. Might be time to find some kind of support group for the socially liberal, (mostly) fiscally conservative set.
And now back to writing a 2,000-word story about my friend’s bachelor party in Vegas for Penthouse.
This entry was posted on 31 May 2008 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Articles, Investor's Business Daily, Random commentary with tags Fiscally conservative, Mr. Plow, Saturday afternoon rambling, Schering-Plough, Socially liberal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.