Can a Muslim Work for a Pharmaceutical Company?

Answered by Shaykh Faraz Rabbani

Question

May I work for a pharmaceutical company if some medicines contain porcine gelatin and similar ingredients? Two of your answers seem to contradict each other.

Answer

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate.

In the Hanafi school, working for a pharmaceutical company is permissible, and your earnings are lawful, so be at ease; your care for lawful income is itself good.

Making medicine serves what the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) described: “Allah has sent down no illness without also sending down a cure for it.” [Bukhari]

The Two Answers Apply the Same Tests

Both ask whether the company’s income is mainly lawful and whether your own work is free of direct help in sin. Mixed wealth is judged by what predominates, and on gifts from such a person, the Fatawa Hindiyya says, “If most of his wealth is lawful, there is no harm in accepting his gift and eating from it.” [al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 5.343]

The hair-restoration company failed the first test, since its main product, wigs of real human hair, is one that the Hanafi school forbids selling. The lab equipment company passed it, and a help desk role there is not provide direct help in sin.

Medicines Are Not Unlawful Goods

The presence of gelatin or glycerol in some lines does not make medicine an unlawful product. In the Hanafi school, an ingredient that is fully transformed in manufacture receives a new ruling, since its essence has changed (istihala). Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on him), citing Fath al-Qadir, calls this the chosen view and explains: “So we know that the transformation of a substance brings with it the removal of the attribute that was tied to it.” [Ibn Abidin, Radd al-Muhtar, 1.327]

Where an impermissible ingredient remains, the school permits its medical use under conditions. Al-Durr al-Mukhtar states, “It is said that it is permitted if a cure is known to be in it and no other remedy is known, just as wine was permitted to the one dying of thirst, and on this is the fatwa.” [Haskafi, al-Durr al-Mukhtar, 1.210]

You Need Not Audit Your Employer, and Every Role You Named Is Permissible

First, you are not required to audit a company’s products or revenue. The Hindiyya adds that one accepts the invitation of someone whose wealth is mostly lawful “as long as it has not become clear to him that it is unlawful.” [al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya, 5.343]

Second, a medicine maker does not earn mainly from unlawful goods. If a company’s main business is truly unlawful, the hair-restoration guidance would apply: seek other work.

Third, research and development, clinical studies, regulatory work, and project management are all permissible, even on a medicine with such an ingredient, because you are developing a treatment. Avoid only being the direct agent of a clearly unlawful act, and where you have a say, press for alternatives such as plant-based capsules.

You May Take the Job with a Clear Conscience

Allah Most High says, “And aid one another in devotion to your Lord in every good and godfearingness, and do not aid one another in sin and transgression.” [Quran 5:2; Keller, The Quran Beheld] Helping people heal is among that good, and with sound intention, a long day on a clinical trial becomes worship.

And Allah knows best.

Faraz Rabbani

Related Answers

• Can I Work for a Hair Restoration Company? — Working there is generally not advised, since most scholars forbid earning mainly from real human hair sold as wigs.
• Can I Work for a Company That Sells Various Kinds of Lab Equipment, Including Some That is Used for Genetic Engineering?— A technical help-desk role is permitted, since it does not directly assist in whatever the equipment might later be used for.
• Can I Take Medicine With Unlawful Ingredients? — Such medicine is permitted once it is proven effective, no permissible alternative exists, and a qualified doctor confirms the need.