Drug prices are out of control: and taxpayers are picking up the tab.

Campaigners say the NHS spent more than £1bn on drugs developed from publicly funded research in 2016. So why are drug companies being allowed to charge it up to 140-times cost price?

This is nothing new: public spending is a central component to innovation in medicine, yet once the drugs come onto the market, the cost ends up falling back on the taxpayer.

We can’t let this go unchecked. Drug prices are rising beyond any reasonable measure all across the globe -- but the people are fighting back. Let’s take the fight to Big Pharma and force it to stop ripping off our NHS! 

Stop overcharging the NHS for publicly developed drugs!

From vaccines and infant formula, to GPS and the internet itself, public investment has played a huge role in bringing about modern innovations that we take for granted.

A 2011 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found 153 new drugs and vaccines from public sector research institutes since 1970, while in 2015, the UK government spent £2.3bn on health research and development.

Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer and global health at Kings College London, said that some pharmaceutical companies "vastly overprice" their drugs. "Many of these drugs are extremely profitable", he said, "but there is absolutely no link between the price set and with the returns on the research - it's a complete myth."

Professor Sullivan told the BBC that the public sector had contributed anywhere between "30% and up to 90% of the overall research intellectual input" in the development stage.

The story is always the same: risks and costs are paid for by the public, while profits and benefits are privatised -- it’s not a fair system, and it’s time for change.

Private drug companies: public investment is vital to drug development -- stop overcharging the NHS for your drugs!

The relationship between our NHS and the private sector is a complex: over 259,000 SumOfUs members like you signed our petition to stop a huge transfer of data between the NHS and private organisations.

With government austerity, understaffing and overpricing all taking their toll, our NHS is under threat like never before. We can’t stand by and let drug companies rip off a service that’s so vital to us all. Join the fight -- together we’re stronger.

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