Pharmaceutical Company Case Study

Companies want to preserve their economic interest over a product the research and development of which is costly and time consuming. On the other hand, society has legitimate expectations from a company holding the patent on a medicine. This expectation is dire from the side of resource poor countries that have a population that cannot pay for medication for diseases that also exist in the resource rich countries as well as cannot incentivize research and development of medicines for diseases unique to its circumstance. The international human rights laws discussed above do not directly regulate the conduct of companies, as the subjects of such laws are states. However, companies have a mandatory human rights duty to the level such duties are incorporated in the laws of the countries they operate in. Apart from that the burgeoning soft law instruments in the area of human rights and businesses establish a ground for corporate human rights responsibility.
As any other corporation, pharmaceutical companies have a human rights responsibility enshrined under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The Guiding Principles provides for the responsibility of businesses despite their nature …show more content…
The general set of responsibilities that these companies should discharge in order to improve access to medicine especially in developing countries include, adopting a human rights policy that recognizes the right to attainable standard of health, integrating the right in to their strategies, and projects, respecting the laws of the countries they operate in and/or where they are domiciled, and refraining from conduct that will encourage the state to violate human rights. The Guideline also contains specific positive and negative human rights responsibilities of