Ethical problems of pharmaceutical industry

Šiame darbe stengiamasi išanalizuoti farmacijos pramonės etines problemas ir pateikti galimus šių problemų sprendimo būdus bei ateities perspektyvas. Farmacijos produktų specifika nulemia farmacijos kompanijų moralinių ir socialinių pareigų visumą ir įpareigoja kompanijas ne tik laikytis įstatymuose nurodytų taisyklių, tačiau ir atkreipti dėmesį į visuomenės lūkesčius bei atsakomybę. Darbe aptariamos etinės problemos yra suskirstytos pagal vaistų kūrimo ir pardavimo etapus: vaistų kūrimo, vaistų rinkodaros etapuose kylančios etinės problemos bei platesnės vaistų prieinamumo etinės problemos. Darbe naudojami įvairūs mokslinio tyrimo metodai, kurių pagrindinis ir esminis – literatūros turinio analizė, kuria remiantis stengiamasi atsakyti į šio darbo tikslą – sistemiškai ištirti patentinių farmacijos kompanijų etines problemas bei suformuluoti galimus etinių problemų sprendimo būdus. Lietuvoje šio darbo tema nėra išnagrinėta, tuo tarpu užsienio valstybių šaltiniuose randama pakankamai daug medikų, medicinos filosofų, etikos specialistų darbų susijusių su šio darbo tyrimo dalyku. Šis darbas sistemiškai ir, kas svarbiausia, tiek teoriškai, tiek praktiškai nagrinėja farmacijos pramonės etines problemas bei pateikti efektyvius galimus problemų sprendimo būdus, pasitelkiant užsienio valstybėse atliktus mokslinius tyrimus bei praktiką, autoritetingų užsienio autorių darbus.This work aims to analyze the ethical problems of the pharmaceutical industry and propose possible solutions to these problems as well as future prospects. The particularity of the pharmaceutical products determines the corpus of the pharmaceutical companies’ social responsibility and moral integrity and requires the companies to not only comply with the rules of law but also to draw attention to the expectations and responsibilities of the society. The ethical issues in this work are divided according to stages of drug development and sales: the ethical problems occuring in different stages of drug development and pharmaceutical marketing and also wider ethical problems arising from the availability of medicines. Various research methods are invoked in the work, the primary and essential one being the content analysis, which is employed to achieve the objective of the work - the systematic study of the ethical issues of R&D pharmaceutical companies and formulation of possible solutions. The topic of this work is not yet examined in Lithuania while in foreign countries we can find a sufficient number of works by medical doctors, medical philosophers and ethicists relating to the subject matter of this thesis. This work systematically and, more importantly, both theoretically and practically examines the ethical problems of the pharmaceutical industry and provides effective solutions to potential problems referring to the research and practice carried out in foreign countries as well as to the works of eminent foreign authors.Švietimo akademijaVytauto Didžiojo universiteta

Publication Ethics in Biomedical Journals from Countries in Central and Eastern Europe

Publication ethics is an important aspect of both the research and publication enterprises. It is particularly important in the field of biomedical science because published data may directly affect human health. In this article, we examine publication ethics policies in biomedical journals published in Central and Eastern Europe. We were interested in possible differences between East European countries that are members of the European Union (Eastern EU) and South-East European countries (South-East Europe) that are not members of the European Union.The most common ethical issues addressed by all journals in the region were redundant publication, peer review process, and copyright or licensing details. Image manipulation, editors’ conflicts of interest and registration of clinical trialswere the least common ethical policies. Three aspects were significantly morecommon in journals published outside the EU: statements on the endorsement of international editorial standards, contributorship policy, and image manipulation.On the other hand, copyright or licensing information were more prevalent in journals published in the Eastern EU. The existence of significant differences amongbiomedical journals’ ethical policies calls for further research and active measuresto harmonize policies across journals. On the other hand, copyright or licensing information were more prevalent in journals published in the Eastern EU. The existence of significant differences among biomedical journals’ ethical policies calls for further research and active measures to harmonize policies across journals