Legal and Ethical Considerations in Marketing, Product Safety, and Intellectual Property

Introduction1

Ethical Issues1

Marketing and Advertising1

Intellectual Property2

Product Safety3

Direct To Consumer Marketing3

Regulating Compounding Pharmacies5

PharmaCARE's Use of Colberian Intellectual Property6

Utilitarianism6

Deontology6

Virtue Ethics7

Ethics of Care7

Self Ethical Compass7

PharmaCARE and Intellectual Property8

Compensating Colberia and Colberians for Intellectual Property8

Comparison of PharmaCARE with another Company9

Law Suits against PharmaCARE and WellCo9

Sustaining of PharmaCARE10

Recommendations10

Conclusion11

References12

Legal and Ethical Considerations in Marketing, Product Safety, and Intellectual Property

Introduction

Gradually with the passage of time, the legal and ethical requirements placed on the companies and businesses in increasing considerably in all industries. A number of legislations are passed by the regulatory bodies which places specific and strict requirements on the companies to adhere to the legal, ethical and environmental principles. Due to the increasing ethical requirements by the law, companies are finding ways to trespass these requirements. A number of companies creatively try to avoid legal technicalities which ultimately lead to ethical lapses and financial losses by them.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and discuss the scenario of one of the successful pharmaceutical companies with the name PharmaCARE. The paper discusses different actions of the company with respect to ethical considerations.

Ethical Issues

Marketing and Advertising

The area of marketing and advertising has been a controversial area because of the associated ethical issues and considerations. There are certain ethical implications for the marketing and advertising of all products and services. The ethical issues and considerations extends when it comes to the marketing and advertisement of medicines and drugs. The marketing and advertisement of drugs and medicines has been a centre of debate for long (Reast et.al, 2008).

An ethical issue in the marketing and advertisement of the drugs is in the case of direct to customer advertising. This includes marketing and advertising the drugs directly to the customers using different communications and advertisement channels. An ethical consideration in such advertising is that whether these advertisements are misleading for the patients (Reast et.al, 2008). The marketing of drugs and medicines is quite different from other consumer products. It therefore needs to be ensured that such advertisements educate and inform the consumer or the patient in proper and adequate manner (Reast et.al, 2008).

The ethical issue is that if these advertisements about the drugs make the consumers able to discern the proper use of the advertised drugs, whether it educates consumers about the limitations of certain medicines and whether the consumer is aware of side effects of the medicines and drugs advertised through these direct to consumer advertisements (Reast et.al, 2008).

Intellectual Property

Intellectual property can be referred as any original creation by someone that is unique and is of value. This creation serves as an asset for the creator. Since this is an important and valuable asset for the creator, an ethical issue is the use of this asset without the consent and permission of the creator or owner (Sonderholm, 2010)

It is asserted that when someone or some entity inputs and dedicates considerable time, thought and creativity, then it is his or her natural right to protect the creation from unsanctioned use by other ...