About Us - Public Pharma For Europe

Billions of people around the world lack access to medicines, vaccines, and other health technologies. Despite major public contributions, pharmaceutical development and production are largely controlled by the private sector, particularly large transnational corporations known as Big Pharma. This profit-driven model is characterised by several dysfunctions that significantly hinder the global realisation of the right to health, including a lack of innovation, a disconnection between R&D efforts and public health needs, a lack of evidence on therapeutic benefit at marketing authorization, private appropriation of public resources, shortages of essential health technologies, exorbitant medication prices, evidence-biased clinical trials, distortions in drug prescriptions, power asymmetries between states and transnational corporations, and increasing tensions and inequities between the Global North and the Global South. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these issues, but it is important to recognise that they are longstanding problems that have threatened public health for decades. Therefore, we argue that increased public leadership and responsibility, including the establishment, continuation, and expansion of Public Pharma can serve as an antidote to Big Pharma’s abuses and better safeguard people’s health.

The Public Pharma for Europe (PPfE) coalition advocates for and supports public leadership and responsibility in establishing, continuing, and expanding public pharmaceutical infrastructures, policies, and governance mechanisms in Europe. Our efforts aim to promote the right to health globally by:needs.

International solidarity is a crucial part of this initiative. Public Pharma provides a concrete means of facilitating historical reparations by promoting technology transfers, enabling fair commercial practices, and countering the power of transnational corporations operating in the Global South.

Public Pharma refers to the infrastructures, policies, and governance mechanisms dedicated to achieving the aforementioned objectives. It encompasses institutional arrangements where governments have genuine decision-making power and can establish governance driven by public interest. It does not include initiatives that use public resources, whether financial or human, to de-risk private enterprises.

We believe that Public Pharma should not be restricted to the early stages of pharmaceutical production, emergencies, or specific groups of diseases. States should assume their responsibility to promote public health by going beyond de-risking private enterprises and instead actively engaging in researching, developing, manufacturing, and distributing pharmaceutical products to serve public health needs.

The best arguments alone are not enough to convince decision-makers and overcome Big Pharma’s lobby. We believe that the establishment, continuation, and expansion of Public Pharma will only be possible through a combination of different approaches:

The PPfE coalition is a diverse and open group, welcoming anyone who believes we can reimagine and transform the pharmaceutical sector. We are exclusively composed of a wide range of networks, social movements, civil society organisations, not-for-profit organisations, patients, scientists, activists, and academics. We are based in Europe and also seek to operate within global solidarity networks working towards Public Pharma worldwide. We do not accept funding from private for-profit entities.