Public Citizen’s Peter Maybarduk told ICIJ that pharma created a system of rules to protect drugmakers and ensure wealthy governments protect them “There is a whole architecture underpinning Keytruda and every patented drug where the US government and Europe go to bat for the industry and its rules”
#CancerCalculus: An ICIJ-led collaboration with 47 media partners in 37 countries reveals how Merck & Co. keeps the price of its lifesaving cancer drug Keytruda sky-high, locking out patients and squeezing health care systems worldwide. www.icij.org/investigatio...
Here the summary of this ask and transparency action we did we @publiccitizen.bsky.social and @hai-org.bsky.social saludporderecho.org/en/mpox-and-...
Holding HIV treatment hostage to extract mineral deals is indefensible. More than a million Zambians rely on this aid.
This administration always finds a new low.
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/h...
Transparency and obligations that support broad access to medical tools are non-negotiable in pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
Public Citizen, @Saludporderecho.bsky.social, and @hai-org.bsky.social are calling on the EU and others to step up: saludporderecho.org/mpox-y-acces...
In a statement on behalf of HAI, @publiccitizen.bsky.social & @saludporderecho.bsky.social to 6th IGWG meeting on the #PandemicAgreement, we warned that a vague text with no binding obligations, workable schemes or enforceable commitments cannot be considered a success: haiweb.org/media-resour...
Pfizer’s CEO said Pharma may “stop supplying” countries that don’t pay more in response to Trump’s threats & pressure campaign.
This would be a classic “working failure,” grounds for compulsory license in every patent law.
Drugmakers that threaten supply lose monopoly privileges.
We wrote Bourla:
Americans aren’t going bankrupt from their cancer treatment because Europeans are getting the same treatment for less. They are going broke so pharma CEOs can get their multi-million dollar paydays, and they are going broke so pharma can enrich shareholders w/ billions in dividends & stock buybacks.
The White House still has not published any of its deals with drugmakers, making its claims to have lowered prices very difficult to believe.
But we know for a fact Trump & GOP gave pharma an $8+ billion payout out of pockets of taxpayers & cancer patients via the Big Ugly Bill.
A new data tool for advocates: The Health Security Policy Academy has released its U.S. Global Health Spending Watch dashboard, which tracks how the U.S. government obligates and spends #GlobalHealth funds.
Explore the dashboard and accompanying blog:
Teal background, highlighted quote: "Pro-corporate, pro-monopoly models reinforced by the current trade order and exploited by the powerful are failing the world. Health must be a guarantee, not a bargaining chip." Blue background with caption: Over 100 organizations around the world detail principles for trade that ensure access to medicines."
The Trump administration is using U.S. trade power and extreme tariffs to bully other countries into binding agreements that undermine affordable and readily available access to medicines.
Experts from around the world offer an alternate vision:
Canada will get <$100 weight loss drugs, while Americans still struggle with the world’s highest prices.
We asked HHS to allow generic competition, overcoming the drugmakers’ patent barriers to improve access to expensive GLP-1s for weight loss, diabetes, and other conditions.
Here's @publiccitizen.bsky.social's statement on TrumpRx:
www.citizen.org/news/trumprx...
#healthpolicy
📢 Ranafrica.org, @publiccitizen.bsky.social, People's Health Movement Kenya, and nearly 50 CSOs call on African leaders to demand equity and sovereignty rather than one-sided terms in new bilateral health agreements with the U.S.
Read the letter. ⬇️
www.ranafrica.org/news/african...
📢Junto a @publiccitizen.bsky.social, @hai-org.bsky.social y otras 26 organizaciones pedimos a HERA (UE) más transparencia en el acuerdo con Bavarian Nordic para la compra de 8 millones de dosis de la vacuna mpox/smallpox
Aquí más info👉 www.citizen.org/article/civi...
Under threat of higher tariffs, the UK has agreed to give more money to Big Pharma, which will do NOTHING to lower the cost of medicines in the U.S.
More evidence that Trump’s tariffs are about helping his CEO buds, not working people.
Lenacapavir could sharply cut new HIV infections.
But only if people can actually get it.
Watch this brief video from @maybarduk.bsky.social on how monopoly power is limiting access, and why World AIDS Day is the moment to demand change.
www.instagram.com/p/DRh2CUIjl-Z/
Instead of giving handouts to Big Pharma at patients’ expense, Congress should work to lower drug costs, including by expanding price negotiations to allow all patients to access lower negotiated prices, even if they don’t have Medicare.
Read more here: www.citizen.org/news/hundred...
Does it pay?
According to the CBO, one of the bills – the now-passed ORPHAN Cures Act – returns over $8 billion to pharma’s pockets. The proposed EPIC Act (that Trump essentially endorsed in an April EO) would return tens of billions more.
Big Pharma and its allies hired over 500 lobbyists this year to push 3 bills to erode a landmark reform that lets Medicare negotiate lower drug prices, according to our new report.
Their lobbyist hires outnumbered public interest advocates fighting the bad bills by 20-to-1.
Trade agreements must not stand in the way of health and access to medicines.
USMCA must be revised to remove extreme intellectual property provisions that keep medicine prices high, discourage competition, and ultimately impede access to medicine.
Thanks to health leaders Emily Bass, Mitchell Warren, Asia Russell, Amanda Banda, and Isata Dumbuya. And to our event co-hosts UNAIDS, Health GAP, People's Medicines Alliance, UAEM, Treatment Action Group, RESULTS, and Partners In Health.
We had a critical discussion about continuing the fight to bring medicines to all, with the first step being bringing that breakthrough — at that price — to the world.
Thanks to UNAIDS' Winnie Byanyima and Unitaid's Tenu Avafia for joining us today and for your leadership.
This week, the world learned that a new HIV prevention drug will be available for $40/year in 120 countries by 2027.
Yet millions of people in countries with growing HIV crises still are left out.
Today, health groups came together to support access for everyone, everywhere.
