Last class we talked about the "general will" which is the common interest of a community. This article reminded me about our talk about the general will because the head of Valeant is not making decisions based on the common interest of the people who need to take the drugs. If the head of Valaent had the interests of the community in mind then he would of not raised the prices of the drugs. But he is acting upon the premise of making the company more valuable because he wants to raise the companies stock price. By doing that he is making the people who have stock in the company very rich. The article stated that the company increased the prices of the drugs because they were going to put that extra money towards research. This research is directed towards creating better more effective drugs. But in the article it says that the company only used 3% of its sales on research. Would Rousseau think that the company Valaent had the common interest of the people who take their drugs in mind when they increased the prices?
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Common Interest and Pharmaceutical Companies
During the past couple of weeks there have been stories about pharmaceutical companies buying older drugs and raising the prices tremendously. The Pharmaceutical company Valeant bought the rights to sell the drugs Nitropress and Isupre. They raised the price of Nitropress by 212% and Isuprel 525%. By raising the prices of the drugs by a large amount they are generating a massive amount of income. This is good for people who have stock in the company because by increasing the price of the drugs they are also increasing the price of the company stock. Many citizens have been outraged by the price increase because they still need to buy the drugs.
Last class we talked about the "general will" which is the common interest of a community. This article reminded me about our talk about the general will because the head of Valeant is not making decisions based on the common interest of the people who need to take the drugs. If the head of Valaent had the interests of the community in mind then he would of not raised the prices of the drugs. But he is acting upon the premise of making the company more valuable because he wants to raise the companies stock price. By doing that he is making the people who have stock in the company very rich. The article stated that the company increased the prices of the drugs because they were going to put that extra money towards research. This research is directed towards creating better more effective drugs. But in the article it says that the company only used 3% of its sales on research. Would Rousseau think that the company Valaent had the common interest of the people who take their drugs in mind when they increased the prices?
Last class we talked about the "general will" which is the common interest of a community. This article reminded me about our talk about the general will because the head of Valeant is not making decisions based on the common interest of the people who need to take the drugs. If the head of Valaent had the interests of the community in mind then he would of not raised the prices of the drugs. But he is acting upon the premise of making the company more valuable because he wants to raise the companies stock price. By doing that he is making the people who have stock in the company very rich. The article stated that the company increased the prices of the drugs because they were going to put that extra money towards research. This research is directed towards creating better more effective drugs. But in the article it says that the company only used 3% of its sales on research. Would Rousseau think that the company Valaent had the common interest of the people who take their drugs in mind when they increased the prices?
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I think that overall Rousseau would not think that they are acting in the common interest of the people taking the drugs. However, he would think they are acting in the common interest of stockholders, researchers and the future people who could benefit from that research. Although they only gave three percent of what they earned to research, that would still be a lot of money. It is a fact in our society that pharmaceutical sales is a business. The company has to look for out stockholders, because without them the company may not exist at all and then that would not be good for anyone. Overall, I think that it is wrong to have jacked the price up that much at one time, however in the long run, it will probably benefit the people more when they come up with something even more helpful in the future. It's a business but it will have a positive outcome.
ReplyDeleteI think for price increase on the drugs the company must put more money towards research than just 3%. By putting more money towards research t I would then believe that the head of Valiant has the General Will of the people in mind.
DeleteI think Rousseau would not think that the company had the interests of people. I agree with your point that if the head of Valaent cares about the common interests then he would of not raised the prices of the drugs. What's more, whether the head of Valaent acts on common interests or not should be decided by people who need the medicine. Even though the company stated that they raised the price because they need further research, however, as for people who need the medicine, it is their current interest that matters. Since the currently high prices have already made people unhappy, I cannot say that the company cares about people's common interests.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion that the head of Valeant is not making decisions based on the common interest of the people that are taking the drugs of his company. This does go against our class discussion on the “general will.” After reading the article, I believe that the head of Valeant is instead acting in a way that will only benefit him and his company. If he were concerned with the “general will” he would take his customers into consideration. The ‘general will” involves the common interest of a community. The community being the head of Valeant’s customers in this situation is not being accounted for. I believe that Rousseau would say the same. Although the article does state that the head of Valeant is raising the price of their drugs to increase the amount of research done on them, research should not be considered more important than the people who need the drugs and have to pay for them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the consensus that Rosseau would not agree Valeant is acting in the general will of the people. I would not go as far as some have in the comments that say he is acting selfishly, as our system of capitalism dictates the promotion of self-interest. Valeant is simply acting towards their own interests, something we should not fault them for.
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