This question came up in a BIO session entitled “Biotechnology’s Responsibility for Human Rights?” Corie Lok, an editor at Nature Network, points out the dichotomy in a post on the Nature blog: Selling drugs isn’t like selling cars or shoes. Health is a social product, one that many feel is not just a product, but a basic human right. For-profit companies, however, are the ones making those drugs and so are also obliged to investors.

So it raises the difficult question, she writes: if you’re in the business of selling health, do you have a special responsibility to make the drugs you’re making accessible to people who can’t afford them? Two people on the panel said yes, including Steven Holtzman, the ceo at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. George Annas, a bioethicist from Boston University, said it’s in the interest of a company, especially a big one that can afford it, to make drugs available, or else you’ll be tried in the court of public opinion and seen as pirates.

There’s lots more BIO coverage on Nature Biotechnology’s convention blog. You can also access the blog by looking on our site along the left-hand side under recommended links and events.