Promoting ethical approach to drug research, development and marketing in the commercial sector - Essay Example

?Promoting ethical approach to drug research, development and marketing in the commercial sector Introduction Drug research, development, and marketing are sensitive issues in the society because of the direct effects of drugs on the human health. Care is therefore necessary in regulating all activities that lead to delivery and application of drugs by consumers. Legal measures exist and regulatory bodies have been instituted to ensure that developed drugs are safe for consumption. These measures however lack adequate preventive potentials and become active after breach. Internal measures that are based on moral principles and obligations would however guide drug developers and manufacturers towards ethical practice and this has the potential to prevent possible harm from development and dispensing of harmful drugs. This paper focuses on this perspective to safety with the aim of identifying strategies that can promote an ethical approach to drug research, development, and marketing in the commercial sector. Available methods for promoting ethical practice and their weaknesses There are diversified approaches that drug research, drug development, and drug-manufacturing companies can implement to ensure ethical practices at organizational and personal level among their employees. Roles of managers, with consideration of organizational behaviour, include control of employees and organizational culture to ensure organizational objectives and managerial roles have been applied to ensure good conduct in the drug industry. One of the general applications towards ethical practices is training of employees on moral obligations. This involves creating awareness of moral values that organizations and their employees should observe and is achieved through seminars and conferences. An understanding of moral values and moral obligation helps employees in dilemmas and ensures rational for ethical behaviour. Employees can however have the required knowledge into ethical practice but still fail to implement the knowledge and this identify the need for motivation towards practice. Offering rewards for ethical behaviour is an alternative. Rewarding an organization or an employee for success in ethical practice has the potential of encouraging the arty to continue with moral behaviour and offers more value to morality than unethical practices. The measure also leads to recognition and is likely to motivate other organizations or employees in an organization to assume ethical behaviour (Nelson N.p.). Setting example for involved stakeholders is another alternative to promoting ethical behaviour in the commercial sector and is therefore applicable to the commercial perspective of drug research, drug development, and drug promotion. This approach corresponds to the awareness perspective and shows other moral expectations and moral obligations. Concepts of a moral person and a moral manager illustrate expected outcomes of these approaches, in moral practices. The approaches ought to have led to rationale into right decisions and morality in actions among players in the drug research, development, and promotion, and to influence responsibility among the parties. Fairness in practice and reliance on developed values would govern practices and ensure morality at individual levels. Effectiveness of these approaches would also ensure effective communication of moral obligations in organizations and knowledge of moral principles and regulations for practice (Nelson N.p.). Unethical practices however prevail in the pharmaceutical sector with global moral problems in drug marketing. A case study of Pakistan confirms this and identifies many unethical practices. Organizations, for example, use techniques such as “monetary rewards, local visits, and foreign visits” among other practices and these are unethical (Ahmed and Jalees 38). Another common unethical practice is the use of non-qualified doctors in drug promotion that is popular despite risks such as misinformation that the application may promote among consumers. Institutional frameworks for regulating pharmaceutical practices also lack and this leads to loopholes that promote unethical practices and calls for legislations that can bridge the gap. The case study also established that controlling unethical practices in the science is a challenge and this means that a critical approach is necessary for identifying approaches that can promote ethics in drug research, drug development, and drug promotion in the commercial sector (Ahmed and Jalees 30- 38). Proposed approaches Empirical studies offer an understanding of strategies for promoting ethical approaches to drug research, drug development, and drug promotion. One of the proposed approaches to ethical influence is changing behaviour among organizations and their employees. The strategy recognizes existence of unethical practices that develop need for change and then proposes influence as a strategy to achieving the change. In drug promotion, for example, the approach would identify immoral practices among drug developers as well as moral expectation and then implement motivators that can influence involved stakeholders to change their practices. Assuming the case study in Pakistan and acknowledging potential risks of non-qualified doctors in drug promotion, behaviour change approach can identify a suitable motivator such as moral awareness of policy development that can motivate organizations, their managers, and employees to use qualified personnel. Restricting minimum qualification for drug promoters is an example. Measures such as “behaviourist conditioning,” “communication persuasion,” “group pressure” and “direct instrumental power” are available for attaining desirable behavioural change (Tengland n.p.). Teleological perspective explains applicability of these measures through motivation factor. According to the theory, motivation into an act determines efforts to success and suitable motivation in pharmaceutical practices is able to influence people’s behaviour from the currently observed unethical practices ethical behaviour in drug research, drug development, and drug promotion (Tengland n.p). Empowerment is another strategy to promoting ethical approaches in pharmaceutical practices. One definition of empowerment is the autonomous potential of n individual and establishes the ability, of a person or an organization, to make independent decisions on behaviour. Developing a significant level of autonomy is effective in ensuring independence from forces that try to influence a person to unethical practices. Consequently, empowered organizations and their members are able to withstand external pressure such as stiff competition and maintain ethical practice in drug research, development, and promotion. Another empowerment perspective to promoting ethical behaviour involves active participation in development of ethical practices. Forums such as seminars and conferences in which existing ethical problems can be identified and discussed, and their solution generated by the stakeholders, either pharmaceutical organization of employees, are examples of avenues that can help to achieve ethical practices in drug research, development, and promotion. Process empowerment is further able to instil value of the developed practices, develop a high level of empowerment state and strong will to apply and defend ethical practices (Tengland n.p). Implementation of ethical programs is another strategy to promoting ethical approach to drug research, development, and promotion in the commercial sector. One of the effects of ethical program implementation is a higher level of awareness of ethical principles and codes within which organizations and their employees should operate and increase probability of aligned behaviour to the principles and codes. Ethical programs also involve the stakeholders in decision-making and therefore promote their acculturation of derived decisions. Ethical leadership also play a significant role in promoting effectiveness of ethical programs on ethical practice (Beeri, Dayan, Vigoda-Gadot and Werner 73, 74). Appropriate selection of leadership style in the pharmaceutical environment is another major factor to promoting ethical approach because some leadership styles are more effective than others are in effecting moral change. Decisions on leadership should be supported by integrating other stakeholders to spearheaded initiatives towards ethical implementation of drug research, development, and promotion (Burnes and By 247- 250). Conclusion Drug research, development, and promotion fall within the commercial sector and experience competitive environments. This together with profit orientation has led to unethical practices in the drug stages. Traditional measures for promoting ethics in normal commercial environments have not promoted ethics in the pharmaceutical industry because unethical practices still exist in drug research, development, and promotion practices across the globe. This paper proposes four strategies to ensuring an ethical approach to drug research, development, and marketing in the commercial sector: behavioural change that focuses on motivation, empowerment, implementation of ethical programs in the industry and within organizations, and leadership perspectives. Works cited Ahmed, Rizwan, and Jalees, Tariq. “Pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan: Unethical pharmaceutical marketing practices.” Paf Kiet. 2008. Web. November 26, 2013. < http://www.pafkiet.edu.pk/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=hhdM7Qxmglc%3D&tabid=393&mid=1559 >. Beeri, Itai, et. al. “Advancing ethics in public organizations: The impact of an ethics program on employees’ perceptions and behaviors in a regional council.” Journal of Business Ethics (2013) 112.1. Print. Burnes, Bernard, and By, Rune. “Leadership and change: The case for greater ethical clarity.” Journal of Business Ethics (2012) 108.2. Print. Nelson, Jonathan. “Promoting ethical behavior in organizations through ethical leadership.” George Mason University. N.d. Web. November 26, 2013. . Tengland, Per-Andres. “Behavior change or empowerment: On the ethics of health-promotion strategies.” Public Health Ethics (2012) 5.1. Print. Read More