Big pharma isn’t working: why we need a new way to make medicines

Type: Campaign briefings
Date: 31 May 2023
Campaigns: Pharma

Big pharma’s profit-driven model of making medicines is bad for our health. While in theory these companies exist to make the medicines we need, most are more interested in making money for their shareholders than finding cures for the most deadly diseases.

Instead, we need our governments to:

1. Break big pharma’s patent monopolies and support better ways of rewarding innovation
2. Share vaccine and treatment technology with lower-income countries, so all countries can make the medicines they need
3. Attach public-interest conditions to publicly-funded research to hold pharma companies accountable
4. Invest to make the medicines the world needs, not the ones that make the most profit
5. Build up publicly-controlled medicines research and manufacturing, to ensure the right to health for all