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Are drug companies that test experimental drugs in foreign countries acting ethically? To answer this question, it is worth looking at why a drug company would experiment in a foreign country before even examining the negative impacts in doing so. Testing drugs internationally is done because it is cheaper and far easier to endanger trial patients in a foreign country. Now when exploring the reasons for the need to test at all, an act utilitarian may surmise that because these tests are inevitably targeted toward benefitting the greater good, the drug companies are justified in doing what is necessary to successfully conduct experimentation. However, what the act utilitarian may neglect to realize is that these trials are being farmed overseas to circumvent regulations barring the ability to do so domestically, which would enable the rule utilitarian to arbitrate the idea less favorably. (Shaw Berry, 2013). In the last decade, US Pharmaceutical companies have pushed trialing out to Malaysia where there is a strong likelihood for poor enforceability of the already weak regulations. We will write a custom essay sample on Original Assignment or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Additionally, this trend of outsourcing clinical trials notoriously exploits those in need of treatment or money, and in a country where the US dollar is worth over 300% more than the Malaysian ringgit, morally reprehensible behavior in conducting these trials is almost inevitable. (Netto, 2007) (XE, 2013) Is American Industry at too much risk of lawsuits to remain competitive? Should companies trying to develop drugs be given immunity from lawsuits? American industry is always at risk of lawsuits as over time they have developed as a check/balance for safe, legal and ethical behavior. The specificities in the development of a law may leave exploitable loop-holes and means by which seemingly legal circumvention can take place while still remaining within the confines of legality, though not necessarily morality. If a pharmaceutical company was to be immune from legal recourse in the form of lawsuits, they would be free to market potentially harmful drugs. Understandably there is always the inherent risk of using a drug and the effects therein; however it should be among the drug company’s primary objectives to ensure that it generally does more good than harm. The idea is Rawlsian in nature in that it requires the drug company to imagine a circumstance where they may be the unknowing consumer of a potentially dangerous drug. (Shaw Berry, 2013). Is it ethical for companies to decline to sell a useful drug because they can make more money marketing drugs that are more widely needed? Is it ethical for companies to decline to sell a useful drug in a foreign country because they can make more money marketing the drug elsewhere? With regard to declining the sale of a useful drug over a drug more widely needed is a side effect of the free market and not necessarily unethical. If a company can subsist more so by marketing a widely needed drug versus a niche drug that may be useful but not necessarily in high demand, they are simply exercising their right to survive as an organization. Libertarian in nature, the idea of the free market is that a company is granted the ability to profit so long as it falls within the legal guidelines of the country it operates within. Because the company neglects to produce one or a series of drugs, it opens up a supply gap for another company to fill and thus profit in their own way. In this regard, the fluidity of the free market may absolve the company of any accusations of ethical shortcomings. Similarly, declining marketing a drug in a foreign country because it would prove more profitably elsewhere relies on the balance of the free market, however the intent seems far less ethical as it presents itself as more of a scheme for profit maximization, where it isn’t monetary necessity driving the decision, its profiteering. (Shaw Berry, 2013).