Merck River Blindness

Introduction and Situational Analysis
Merck and River Blindness ethical dilemma is whether to pursue research that may or may affect the profits, or to choose a safer choice and go for profit rather than researching the drug. The outcome from researching the drug could possibly lead to healing the deadly and dangerous disease known as River Blindness. This drug is known to kill the parasite that has caused the disease. The problem with this situation was that the consumers of the drug could not pay for the medication. Therefore would result in no profit for Merck’s company. This is the flip side of the “orphan” drug dilemma (Nelson, & Trevino, 2011). Merck and Co.’s values was, “We try never to forget that medicine is for people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear” (Nelson, & Trevino, 2011). The statement is their
The company has a reasonability to guarantee that the company stays profitable and that they investors see a return on their investments. The dilemma that the investors are impacted with is how the company may not recover the lost money that was invested and the investors might not see a profit from it. However, the scientists are involved by the fact that they are researching a drug to cure this disease and therefore involved the most involved in the whole process. In addition, the scientists need the company to provide the resources mandated for their research. If the company doesn’t oblige to the obligation for the scientists then they would be letting down everyone involved. Moreover, consumers are affected by the situation at hand because if the drug is researched correctly, the consumers can be cured from the diseased and avoid getting it. The company is impacted in a way similar to the investors. The company might not ever recover the investment due to not making a