Economical, Clinical, and Ethical Factors of Medicine Prescribing - Assignment Example

Markups on medications are over 1000% percent.  As a healthcare decision-maker or payer, there are three different facets to prescribing such medication in this business:  the economic grounds; the clinical grounds; and the ethical grounds.

1. Economic Grounds

Prescribing medications for economic reasons is a major factor.  “Conversely, the use of some prescription drugs can substitute for more costly hospitalization” (Jones, 2006, pp. 122).  Taking medications is oftentimes cheaper and less invasive than surgery.  However, one of the points to be made is that this medication is many times so expensive that the average person may not be able to afford it.  Companies want to be reimbursed for patents.  “Studies combining the targeted therapies are being performed with the known caveat that combination therapies are associated with high financial cost and possibly increased toxicity” (Martens, 2009, pp. 79).

• Clinical Grounds

Clinically speaking, sometimes drugs such as Sunitinib are not always safe to prescribe.  Therefore, only highly-experienced and trained doctors and nurse practitioners under the guidance of a doctor may prescribe medications such as this one to patients who have kidney cancer.  “However, prior awareness of contraindications, drug interactions, and toxicities is essential for safe prescribing. These, in turn, require a thorough knowledge of the clinical pharmacology of all drugs in common use” (Naylor, 2002, pp. 169).  It only makes sense that medical professionals should definitely be made acutely aware of what the pros and cons are during prescribing.

1. Ethical Grounds

The ethical grounds of prescribing such medication may be due to its high price, and what the ethical obligations are of someone who is prescribing such a high-priced drug.  “Many believe that the simultaneous burgeoning of prescription drug advertising and sales of high-priced drugs is more than coincidence and is cause for alarm” (Santoro and Gorrie, 2005, pp. 169).  Ethically speaking, a practitioner has an ethical obligation to make sure that the patient has the means to buy or acquire the drug from a drug company before prescribing something that is so expensive.  That is the ethical problem with prescribing such a drug.  Usually, such prescriptions are expensive because they are brand-name and not generic—which means that the drugmaker is still trying to pay off the bill from the research that went into developing the drug.  “The pharmaceutical industry sustains high drug prices through patent protection. Patents are reasonable to allow companies to achieve a return on their research investments” (Harrington et al., 2004, pp. 306).

1. Conclusion

There are economic, clinical, and ethical factors to consider when doctors or nurse practitioners guided by doctors prescribe certain medications, like Sunitinib.  Obviously, all necessary precautions should be taken in such undertakings.