Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

Merck & Company is a large pharmaceutical company located in New Jersey. They have an ethical decision to make concerning whether or not to pursue more research to find a drug that is safe for humans and that will cure River Blindness. River Blindness is mainly in the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. It is caused from parasites. These parasitic worms live in flies that breed in and around developing countries that have fast-moving rivers. When a fly bites a human, the larvae of the parasitic worms get into the humans body. These parasites leave very nasty growths on the individuals who have been bitten. Once the parasites breed, there are millions of baby parasites released into the individuals system. The symptoms of River Blindness are intense itching and eventually blindness.

There are only two medications that can kill the parasites but those medications both have really bad side effects that can cause death. The only thing that is being done to fight and to try to kill these parasites is spraying the areas with insecticides. However, this has become ineffective because the flies have built up immunity to the insecticides and they are not being killed. In 1978, Merck & Company tested a drug for animals called Ivermectin to see if it could kill parasites. It was found that this drug killed parasites very similar to the one that caused River Blindness. Merck & Company’s researchers want to continue to do research to see if they can make this drug so humans can take it to kill the parasites that cause River Blindness. However, Merck & Company thinks that if this drug is discovered that since the areas affected are minimal and are in poor countries that the company won’t make a profit from the drug. Should Merck & Company invest millions of dollars to try to adapt this medication for human use or should it just continue with the animal version and go no further since they don’t believe that they will profit from this medication?

Stakeholders

The key stakeholders that have a bona fide interest in Merck & Company’s dilemma are their employees, their researchers, their competition, their suppliers, individuals with River Blindness, individuals in the areas that River Blindness is prevalent, the Government, the community where Merck’s headquarters is located, the medical community, financial institutions, and Merck’s stock holders. All of these stakeholders have an interest, one way or another in Merck’s dilemma and will be affected either way.

Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid

Merck’s corporate social responsibility pyramid is based on four types of responsibility economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. Their economic responsibility is to make medications that are needed