This question came up in this morning’s session entitled Biotechnology’s responsibility for human rights? 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.

So it raises the difficult question: if you’re in the business of selling health, do you have a special responsibility to make the drugs you make accessible to people who can’t afford them? Two people on the panel said yes, including the CEO of a Cambridge biotech company. The others were silent on this question. What do you think?