NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The argument between the pharmaceutical industry and consumer advocates seems like a dead end.
Critics say everyone has a basic right to basic health care, including affordable drugs. Industry representatives counter that research which may someday save lives is threatened if they don’t make a fair profit on existing drugs.
On Wednesday, March 31, Richard T. De George of the University of Kansas will deliver the 17th Berry Lecture at Vanderbilt University. The topic is "Ethics and the Pharmaceutical Industry."
"The critics of the drug companies clearly raise ethical claims, while the industry response is primarily in economic terms," De George said. "The lecture will present an analysis of the arguments and suggest a way out of the apparent impasse."
The Berry Lecture brings a nationally known ethicist to Nashville each year to focus attention on a moral problem that confronts society. It began in 1988, funded by John and Shirley Lachs, Alan Berry and Kendall Berry.
The lecture begins at 7 p.m. in Room 126 of Wilson Hall on the Vanderbilt campus. There will be receptions before and after the lecture in the lobby of Wilson Hall. All events are free and open to the public.
De George is co-director of the International Center for Ethics in Business at the University of Kansas. He has written or edited more than 20 books, including Competing with Integrity in International Business and Business Ethics, now in its fifth edition and translated into Japanese, Chinese and Russian.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu