AIDS in Developing Nations - Essay Example

Introduction: We are living is a world in which poverty is rampant across developing nations such as South Africa. In places such as South Africa people barely have enough food, shelter and medicine to survive. The deadly HIV/Aids virus has become a major problem in this country. The nation has the higher incident of aids in the world with 3 out of every 45 people being a victim of HIV (Hill, 2007). The three million HIV/Aids patients are mostly poor people that cannot afford to pay the outrageous prices these companies are charging for their drugs. Due to the abusive pricing policy of the western drug companies governmental institutions such as the South African government have been forced to take a stand and resort to illegal practices such as violating patented drugs protection in order to have the medicine needed to treat HIV/Aids patients. Answer One: Drug companies invest billions of dollars a year on research and development in order to create innovative drug products to battle human diseases. Some diseases such as cancer and HIV-Aids do not have a cure and the treatment for these diseases is extremely expensive. In the United States it can cost over $6000 a year for an aids patient to receive the minimum cocktail of drugs they need. The patent protection the companies receive from governmental institutions is the only way to insure these corporations receive an adequate return in order to cover the huge losses these undergo from many R&D projects that do not pay dividends. The development of a new drug can cost upwards of $800 million and nearly 12 years of time to develop them (Hill, 2007). Answer Two: Aids is a horrible disease that is affecting millions of humans around the world. In 2006 there were approximately 40 million persons living with the HIV/Aids virus. The medical treatment to treat aids patients is extremely expensive (Niaid). We are talking about over $6,000 worth of drugs per patient per year. In develop nations such as the United States of America were the gross domestic product per capita is $41,890 the enormous cost despite putting a big damper in the personal budget and governmental medical expense budget a lot of people with aids can afford to receive the treatment they need to extend their lifespan (CultureGrams, 2009). Aids is no longer the dead threat it once was. These drugs are helping people such as Earvin “Magic” Johnson who has been living with HIV since 1991 to extend their lifetime. The drug companies that are manufacturing these drugs have to realize than in developing nations such as South Africa and the Sub-Saharan African Region simply can not afford to pay for these drugs. The policy of these companies should be to lower their prices to enable the government to acquire the drugs. Their policy should be to sell the drugs at cost or a marginal profit. The cost must not consider any R&D expenses and should only to the actual materials and labor necessary to manufacture these drugs. Answer Three: Ethics can be defined as a decision to choose right from wrong (NesSmith, 1995). When human beings are dying due to infectious deadly disease such as AIDS the right thing to do is to provide a helping hand in order to minimize the suffering of human beings. It is extremely unethical for a drug company to charge high prices for drugs in places were the majority of the population makes only a fraction of what it cost to purchase HIV related medicine. The drug companies may claim that there in the business of making money and achieving a return on their investment, but the corporate world has change and the stakeholders expect companies to act in a socially responsible manner. Answer Four: The company did not like the fact that the government was cloning their drugs without their permission. The Western company did not act correctly in the South African manner because it did not look for ways to negotiate better terms for both parties involved. One of their central problems was the lack of companies. Even the offer of slashing prices by nearly 90% which seems like a good deed was good enough because they were dealing with a nation in which people make a $1 or $2 per day. An alternative solution to the crisis would have been to give the drugs away in order to ensure that no other countries attempt to violate their patents and to improve their public relations. Answer Five: This is difficult to answer as far the implication of doing the morally correct thing which would be to lower costs across the board on all drugs in developing nations. In reality in the world we are living in which capitalism rules the corporate society and corporation are legal entities with a life of their own it will not happen. Aids is a special case because it is one of the few diseases in the world along with cancer which has no cure. Aids is so bad because the virus is constantly mutating and it has became a mission impossible for scientist to find the cure the world needs to end the Aids epidemic forever. Conclusion: As we move forward towards the second decade of the 21st century the world has to pay greater attention and emphasis to world problems such as the spread of HIV. The private sector has to take a more proactive approach as far as their pricing position for the distribution of medicine in developing nations. When the drug lower their drug prices to $65 per month to treat aids which seems like peanuts, in South Africa only 2% of the population infected with aids could afford them. It is time for the drug companies along with the governmental institutions from developed nation to change their policies in order to provide some much needed help in the African continent and in other developing nation that are struggling to survive. The aids epidemic is a horrible crisis that must be dealt with immediately in order to stop it from further spreading across the world population. The current victims of the epidemic need to receive medicine immediately and money must not be a barrier that inhibits the patients from receiving the treatment they need. References CultureGrams (2009). Country Profile: United States. Retrieved June 20, 2009 from CultureGrams database. Hill, C.W.L. (2007). International Business. New York: McGraw Hills. NesSmith, W. (1995). Social Sciences: An Introduction to the Discipline. Forth Worth: Hartcourt Brace College Publicatinos. Niaid.gov. HIV/AIDS. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Retrieved June 21, 2009 from http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/HIVAIDS/Research/HPTN.htm Read More