Doctors Without Borders Case Study

Harvey Mackay once said “Ethical decisions ensure that everyone 's best interests are protected. When in doubt, don 't.” (Mackay, n.d.) This means that people who are responsible for others welfare have to put others needs and wants before their own. Doctors Without Borders is faced with a tough decision that will affect numerous people. They need to either continue purchasing the medication, Daraprim, from Turing Pharmaceuticals or transfer their support to Imprimis Pharmaceuticals. Both companies have advantages and disadvantages to consider. However, because Turing Pharmaceuticals is able to supply Daraprim in bulk, have promised to reduce their price, and are planning to further research the disease toxoplasmosis, they are the better …show more content…
They are also willing to supply the drug at no cost to uninsured patients who can’t afford it. On top of that they will offer “copayment assistance programs” to patients and are willing to implement additional programs if they are needed in the future. Furthermore they will offer the drug at a discounted rate to hospitals to aid hospitalized patients. (Zeitlin, 2015) With the drug reasonably priced, Doctors Without Borders does not need to switch their supplier, saving them the hassle of transferring paperwork. With any change in a business, vast amounts of paperwork result. This is an especially immense job in the medical field where each patient’s medical records need to be transmitted to another company. There is always the danger that records will be recorded improperly which is potentially dangerous. If a patient is given the wrong dosage, the medicine could be life threatening. This is especially true with Daraprim because dosages can be approaching the toxic levels so a slight increase can send it into dangerously high toxic areas. (Retzlaff, 2015) Therefore, the patients are safer if they continue to receive their medication from Turing as the chances of dosages being incorrect are greatly