Marketing Practices and Pharmaceutical Corporations

Topic: Marketing Practices and Pharmaceutical Corporations

Background:

Marketing practices and priorities of pharmaceutical corporations have been breached by drug dealers, who have corrupted the goals of these associations. Money has become the one goal of these selfish organizations. They are immoral and only care about making money; the well-being of the customer is not something to worry about. These corporations have experienced much scrutiny from the community; because of shortcuts used. However good medical drugs must go through the process of testing and careful clinical trials. Quality assurance can be divided into 4 major areas: quality control, production, distribution, and inspections. Most of the shortcuts are seen during production and inspection. The development of norms, standards, and guidelines to promote quality assurance is an integral part of WHO's Constitution. However, many lesser developed countries have drugs that do not meet the standards.

Current Issues

Recently, China's former drug regulator, Zheng Xiaoyu, was sentenced to death for taking bribes to approve the use of untested medicines. This is one of the many examples of corruption in the pharmaceutical world. Not only did this act of injustice cause much chaos, but it caused many deaths from the medicine. The Beijing number1 Intermediate People's Court convicted Xiaoyu for taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than $832,000 US.

Policy:

Iran's pharmaceutical industry has progressed over the last few decades. It has become a highly attractive market for business because of its enlarging population who demand more health care and pharmaceutical products. Iran is centrally controlled and doesn't allow for competition. Iran institutes intense price control by its drug authorities. However it is also characterized by irrational use of drugs. In spite of this , the system has produced some success like guaranteed low and affordable prices on drugs for all patients. Also, local production of more than 95% of the drug consumption of the country is used as a way to save money for importing medicines. The national drug policy (NDP) states that Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOH's) mission is to provide access for a sufficient quantity of safe, effective, and high quality medicine that is affordable for all. Because of new developments in Iran, the MOH revised the NDP to be characterized as follows: regulation of drug market, generic-based medicine policy, promotion of local production of medicine, price control, formulation-based national industry, herbal medicine industry, promotion of self-sufficiency in vaccine production, and licensing for all locally produced and imported drugs. The WHO should enforce to not donate partially used medicines, free samples,