A multinational pharmaceutical company is faced with the ethical dilemma of telling the general public the truth about a mishap in the company's drug labelling which has resulted in the death of four unborn children and leaves many at risk if the drugs are not retrieved from the market immediately. But the challenge the company faces is that admitting the truth could attract crippling legal charges, drastic reduction in patronage and reputation crisis

A multinational pharmaceutical company is faced with the ethical dilemma of telling the general public the truth about a mishap in the company's drug labelling which has resulted in the death of four unborn children and leaves many more at risk if the drugs are not retrieved from the market immediately. But the challenge the company faces is that admitting this truth could attract crippling legal charges drastic reduction in patronage and reputation crisis. Give a reasoned ethical advice to the company showing clearly the Ethical basis of your advice the challenges you envisaged and how to deal with the identified challenges.

The answer is below

Explanation:

It is always expected that drugs are well labeled in a clear terms and details, giving information such as pharmaceutical compounds, usage of doses, its strength and prospects, in which patients get to be aware of the drug explicit data that ensure proper medication.

It is believed that, errors could occurred in drug labelling as a result of either professional negligence or printing errors of during labelling process.

However, regardless of the cause of error, the company should inform the appropriate governmental and pharmaceutical agency, ( for example, the Food and Drug Administration in the US), and the general public.

This is a necessary step as it will help to avoid potential but crucial damages to the unsuspecting patients that could be occasioned by its use.

Hence, error reporting should be perceived to be independent of economical issues and pharmaceutical commercial interests, this is because of the human lives that is involved as it could affect the lives of human, the drug set out to protect or improve.

Also, the company can make use of organization like the ISMP National Medication Errors Reporting Program (ISMP MERP) whose purpose is to enable professionals working in health care institutions to report any labeling error.