The pharmaceutical system is broken. Despite the unprecedented urgency of the Covid-19 pandemic, pharma companies refused to waive their patent monopolies and continued to restrict access to life-saving vaccines for millions in the global south.
But this is a system that has been failing us for decades. Big pharma ignores diseases which won’t make them huge profits, meaning millions of people suffer from preventable illnesses each year.
Even when they do make new medicines, big pharma companies charge so much that many countries across the world often can’t afford them. Even the NHS often has to ration access.
Many of the most important new medicines are funded with public money. Yet because of the broken patent system, big pharma gets to decide who gets them and for how much.
We need a change. Sign our petition to demand the UK government start building a new pharma system that puts lives before profits.