Big Pharma Is a Big Menace to Global Health
Pharmaceutical companies claim their profits are necessary for vital medical research, but it’s public investment that funds the research before private firms gobble up the benefits through patent monopolies.
COVID-19 vaccine stored at Roseland Community Hospital on December 18, 2020, in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)
The role of the pharmaceutical industry has become a matter of sharp public controversy after scandals like the role of Purdue Pharma in fueling the US opioid epidemic. From the HIV/AIDS crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmaceutical corporations have been accused of profiteering at the expense of countless lives.
But the pandemic also exposed our reliance on these companies for the production of lifesaving vaccines — even though the development of those vaccines was largely funded by public money. Is there an alternative model that we could set about implementing at national or international levels to wean us off our dependence on Big Pharma?
Nick Dearden is the director of Global Justice Now and the author of Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Public Health. This is an edited transcript from Jacobin Radio’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the interview here.
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