Ethics of Offshoring: Novo Nordisk and Clinical Trials in Emerging Economies

Critics have pointed a finger at the unethical use of intellectual property in the pharmaceutical industry claiming it is being used to set prices far above what those in third world countries can afford. Given that a good number of the raw material came from these regions, it is unethical to use intellectual property

Instead of relying only on domestic workers, many companies also outsource some of their labor into foreign markets. This practice can have negative effects on the economy overall, individual businesses can often benefit from this practice. Outsourcing offshore can allow companies to tap into foreign markets and expand their businesses.

* Labor outsourcing is a good strategy to decrease the labor cost. But it associates with many issues. Once outsourcing is done, the MNC cannot just stay behind. The MNC should carefully supervise on the working conditions, safety, wages, working hours, gender discrimination and human rights violations. If any of these factors going wrong and leads to sweatshop conditions, it directly affect on the reputation of the MNC. If once the name or the brand is blacklisted, it is very hard to repair the damage. Therefore, the risk of outsourcing is high.

to be completed by countries who pay their employees as little as 10% of the average earnings in America. Although this is happening in many professions, it is extremely noticeable in engineering with the managers of these large companies hoping to save a net cost of 70 percent (Ron Hira). This strategy, which is commonly known as offshoring, has been increasing in popularity exponentially and there have been many debates as to whether this method of production is a benefit, or a burden. It is uncertain what the overall effect of offshoring will have on the American economy but the workers, namely engineers, should begin adapting.

Many businesses in United States manufacture their product overseas. This involves manufacturing products outside United States where the labor cost is cheaper. Because of cheap labor, it is often more economical for a U.S. company to manufacture overseas and pay the shipping costs than to manufacture in the United States. For a company, the savings may be substantial. However, there are negative impacts on U.S. employment, as many jobs in the United States are being outsourced and replaced by overseas positions. The manufacturers outsource production projects to save time, money or resources. The manufacturing is outsourced so as to remain competitive and maintain a steady work flow. Without outsourcing, manufacturing costs could escalate to the point at which no product would sell and all employees would have no work. Outsourcing comes

Despite that an excessively excellent image of outsourcing was provided to individuals one or two of years back, the truth check they were confronted with shattered the dream badly. Recent statistics reveal that over four-hundredth corporations are concerned either in experimenting or are already engaged in shifting their services overseas in search of low-cost labor and services that are being provided by countries like China and Bharat. Such efforts have left native market labor at extreme disadvantage wherever they're finding it vastly tedious to create each ends meet, leave behind the back-breaking burden of taxes they're being obligatory to. With over four-hundredth major company executives registering their opinion by discouraging the method of outsourcing the controversy that was antecedently being won by the

1. Pricing: Many Asian and African countries are poor and cannot afford the costly medicines. The Pharmaceutical firms spend vast amounts on R&D in creating and marketing drugs, thus charging high prices enables for cost of capital recovery and profit generation.

Further, they point out that even more educated highly trained workers with higher-value jobs such as software engineers, accountants, radiologists, and journalists in the developed world The increased safety net costs of the unemployed may be absorbed by the government (taxpayers) in the high-cost country or by the company doing the offshoring. And when it comes to health and safety requirements it is based upon the company they work and job they do. All of the companies now are recommended the safety measures of their workers. The choice of offshoring destination is often made according to cultural concerns.

Outsourcing is a method used by many corporations in which their products are manufactured in foreign countries often for cheaper labor.This method method of productions has it’s pros and cons.

The Brazilian pharmaceutical market is the ninth largest in the world and the second among the BRIC countries (First is China, with Russia and India occupying third and fourth), annually handling about R $ 28 billion, a growth trend. Among the six largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, four are Brazilian. Currently there are about 540 pharmaceutical companies registered in Brazil.

Even though I think conducting clinical trials in emerging economies is beneficial to the firm, Novo Nordisk should still follow below guidelines for this major decision to protect its own reputation and serve the best interest for every stakeholder:

It was clear to management in GSD that although these numbers are very compelling and give the company an opportunity to save a vast amount of money, offshoring would still be a very sensitive decision. Historically, the benefits of free trade had been premised on the logic of comparative advantage. Management at GSD wondered whether the concept of comparative advantage was losing its relevance as an argument in favor of free trade. The question was put forth that, if free trade simply transferred jobs, where would the new jobs come from to utilize the skills of highly trained displaced developed world workers who had grown accustomed to high levels of pay? In 2003, a newspaper article commented on a political debate related to offshoring jobs of radiologists from the hospital of Massachusetts General Hospital. It stated, “The hospital would beam images electronically from some scans to India, to be worked on by radiologists there”. As one would expect, US radiologists were up in arms over this. “Who needs to pay us $350,000 a year if they can get a cheap Indian radiologist for $25,000 a year?” (Who’s Reading Your X-Ray, The New York Times. Nov. 16, 2003). This is the exact view that GSD would not like to portray. Their reputation both internally as viewed

In the past decade the topic of outsourcing has become a heavily debated subject on if it is ethically correct to outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. Outsourcing has become more and more an option for many companies and not just an economic fad. The decision to outsource is a difficult one for any company to make because there are many advantages and disadvantages to consider. The decision to outsource affects many people, communities, and industries so if a corporation decides to outsource they must consider how it will affect human dignity, the common good of the economy, and subsidiary.

Green, Aaron. (2007, September 17). “Part 1: Offshoring basics: definitions, benefits, and challenges.” Retrieved from www.boston.com/jobs/on_staffing/091707.shtml

There are a number of challenges in for setting up clinical trials and performing biopharmaceutical development. In fact, China has the longest drug application timeline of all Asian countries. Language , culture, infrastructure, regulatory and quality issues are some other challenges in the emerging economies