COVID-19 has been devastating for people all over the world -- but it's a goldmine for Gilead.

The pharma corporation, notorious for its price-gouging on HIV and hepatitis C drugs, is on the verge a breakthrough COVID-19 treatment called remdesivir. Gilead's own execs admit the company won't be able to make enough of the drug to treat everyone who needs it. But they're still clinging to their patent in the hopes of making millions off pandemic sufferers.

Governments have a secret weapon that could spoil Gilead's plans. It's called compulsory licensing: allowing the production of cheaper generic drugs when a patented one is too scarce or expensive. But the laws around it are so complicated that licensing a generic version of remdesivir or any other COVID-19 drug could take months or even years. And pressure from the US and pharmaceutical lobbyists has kept most governments from taking the first steps.

That's all starting to change now. The German governments just passed new laws to make compulsory licensing faster and easier. Before Gilead gets a chance to cash in on remdesivir, we need to get all other European governments to do the same!

Thousands of SumOfUs members like you have already written to Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day asking him to make remdesivir freely available to all. In response to your pressure, Gilead stated that it was scaling up production of the drug -- but even in the best case, it won't be able to meet the huge worldwide need for COVID-19 treatment. And with profit-hungry investors demanding sky-high returns, it certainly won't sell the drug at a price people and governments can afford.

It's obvious that the only way to ensure a free-flowing, affordable supply of remdesivir -- or any COVID-19 cure -- is for governments to void the patent and scale up generic production of the drug. In fact, Israel just did that with another potential COVID-19 medication, Kaletra, forcing its maker AbbVie to announce it was dropping its patent worldwide.

Every EU country already has laws that let them issue compulsory licenses if "public interest" demands it. All they have to do is streamline those so they can act quickly enough. That wouldn't just save lives during this pandemic -- it would give everyone faster, easier and cheaper access to medications in the future, too.

Big Pharma shouldn't have the power to decide how much a human life is worth. So please, can you pressure your government and demand urgent action?

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