Public Pharma, Public Power: Taking Back Control of the Medicine Supply
Access to affordable medicine is a human right. Yet across the United States, drug prices remain out of reach for millions, with the heaviest burdens falling on Black, Latino, Indigenous, and other communities long excluded from equitable care. At the same time, a profit-driven pharmaceutical system drains public resources and puts enormous pressure on the health systems communities depend on. Public pharma offers a different path. This panel will explore three urgent questions: Why is the current system failing us? Market failures, perverse incentives, and extractive private actors throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain – from research and development to manufacturing to distribution – keep life-saving medicines unaffordable for the people who need them most. What can public pharma actually do? Public options at every stage of the pharmaceutical value chain can create real competition, check private power, and deliver on government’s fundamental responsibility to ensure people can access the medicines they need. Where is this happening right now? Public pharma initiatives are gaining momentum across the country. Our panelists will share what is working, what we are learning, and how these efforts are building toward lasting systemic change.
