2019-08-10: Task 2

Some people say that drug companies have a responsibility to spend money on researching medicines that will help people in poorer countries. Others say the main responsibility of drug companies is to make money. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

With the dearth of medical care, people living in the deprived countries are vulnerable to disease — even easily-curable diseases may incur a great danger to their health. The debate about whether drug companies should give support to those countries by investing on researching new medicine never seems to end.

Some people are strong advocates of delivering maximum profit to their investor is the main responsibility of drug companies. Like any other companies, drug companies are profit-oriented organizations that are built to earn money. Research on new medicine usually requires long-term inputs, including people resource and enormous funds, which lead to high costs. If drug companies were forced to put money on such researching continuously and unconditionally, many of them would be unlikely to balance their payments, especially those small-scale ones with strong dependance on their markets, and they would finally end up with bankruptcy and consequently bring about unemployment and even the shortage of some drugs. Therefore it is unfair for those companies.

However, some opponents argue that drug companies are the most appropriate candidates who should stand on the stage to aid the poor people. This is because drug companies have the ability to do such profound research, they can take out a reasonable proportion from their profit to invest in meaningful attempts. And if they succeed to provide effective and affordable drugs to the poor countries, they would get a global reputation. Furthermore, the benefited countries can also back up those companies in various ways, including providing workforce and raw materials. That would become a win-win result.

In my opinion, drug companies, especially those big international corporations, should look at the longer run, keeping investing on new medicine researching to help the undeveloped countries is not only making contribution to the human society but also improving their own prospects.