International Legal and Ethical Issues in Business Essay - 3

International Legal and Ethical Issues in Business - Essay Example Indeed, it is the global market leader in various pharmaceutical fields especially in hormonal contraception and crop protection (Bayer, 2010). Bayer is among the few multinational enterprises that have diversified their pharmaceutical production business with other ventures. The company has been under pressure from its investors to follow the example of ICI that divested its pharmaceutical arm Zeneca, in bid to strengthen the company’s drug business and free it from the cyclical nature of Bayer’s other chemical businesses (Rugman, 2005, P.128). The Bayer group is managed through holding of four product-oriented companies - Bayer healthcare, Bayer chemicals, Bayer crop science and three service industries (Bayer Technology Services, Bayer Business Services and Bayer Industry Services), with each company being managed independently in efforts to improve individual primary competencies (Rugman, 2005, P.129). Bayer Group business units are mainly concerned with researching the possible market demands, embarking on marketing campaigns, and taking the required product to the market, with most units concentrating on a single business of the Bayer businesses. Its FSAs includes the drugs in pre-clinical trials, R&D labs, and the patented products (Bayer, 2010). Challenges and legal barriers Bayer pharmaceutical companies face many challenges in the global market especially from generic drugs companies, thus Bayer is among the strong global advocate against generic-drug and will go to any high length to delay the introduction of the lower priced generic drugs to the market. These challenges includes: first, there are global campaigns to push domestic companies to excel internationally, leading to changes in patent legislation that might affect the length of life of the patented products FSA or the benefits that Bayer may accrue as a result of that FSA (Rugman, 2005, P.129). Secondly, the generic brand companies infringe its patent right; for example, in Oc tober 2001, the generic manufacturer Apotex, accepted an order from the Canadian government to supply Cipro, an anthrax fighting drug in violation of Bayer’s rights (Rugman, 2005, P.129). Additionally, â€Å"an Indian court on 9 February 2010 declined Bayer’s latest attempt to introduce new measures to prevent generic competition in India; Bayer was trying to install a new barrier to generic competition by delaying the approval process that generic drugs are subject to following in order to be sold in India; by delaying the registration until after patent expiry would have prevented timely entry of new competitors, and extend the monopoly of the sole patent-holding manufacturer† (MSF, 2010). This scenario has been witnessed in other countries such as Thailand. Bayer’s argument was based on well-recognized international trade convection of TRIPS-Plus patent rules. These are rules â€Å"that are intended to broaden the scope and prolong the period of monop oly while still maintaining the high prices of the patents holders by offering the patent holders exclusive rights to the market without any introduction of generic drugs to the new market until their patent expires† (Melendez-Ortiz & Roffe, 2009, P.164). Lastly, generic-drugs offer unfair competition to the patented drug since they are produced cheaply and are lowly priced thus offering hyper competition in the global mar