Amylin's recent woes with its new diabetes drug, Byetta—six people have died, possibly as a result of taking the drug—raises a crucial question that has long vexed companies and patients about the medications we take for what ails us.

What is an acceptable trade-off between drugs that help millions of people living with chronic conditions such as diabetes—or pain or heart disease—but hurt or kill a few?

It's the pharmaceutical industry's version of the old moral dilemma of whether it is acceptable to sacrifice a few to save many. It's akin to what a person would do if he saw a crowd of people about to be hit by a speeding train. It's too late to warn them off the tracks, but he could throw a switch and divert the train to a siding—where a single person is standing and would almost certainly be killed.

What would you do?

In the case of Byetta, the millions of people who use it won't die if they don't take it, and there are alternatives. Yet for many patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes (type 2 diabetes), other medicines don't control their glucose levels as well as Byetta; that can lead to declining health.

Should they be denied this treatment to save a handful of people who contracted severe pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that is sometimes fatal?

A more spectacular recent case is the painkiller Vioxx, which was blamed in the heart-attack deaths of thousands of people with heart disease. Merck, its maker, voluntarily withdrew Vioxx from the market, even though millions of people had taken the drug safely and benefited from it.

Another example is cerivastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug that Bayer introduced in the late 1990s to compete with Pfizer's Lipitor. Bayer voluntarily pulled the drug in 2001 after it was linked to 52 deaths due to renal failure and to other, nonlethal complications. This was after the Food and Drug Administration had ordered warnings issued to patients and physicians, warnings that failed to stem the fatalities.

Regulators took similar steps with Byetta. In 2007, the F.D.A. ordered Amylin to place information about the dangers of pancreatitis in the drug's insert. It warned that patients should immediately tell their doctors if they experience abdominal pain while taking the drug. This step was in reaction to a small number of people getting sick before anyone had died.

In the wake of the deaths, the F.D.A. says it wants the warning strengthened. The agency says it will monitor the drug closely over the next few months, looking for further deaths.

Amylin and its partner, Eli Lilly, insist that there is no direct proof the patients died because of Byetta. Diabetics have a three-times-greater risk of pancreatitis than nondiabetics.

Investors were spooked nonetheless. Amylin's share price dropped nearly 23 percent when news of the deaths was released. Byetta accounts for 80 percent of the company's revenues.