Big Pharma

"The big drug companies spend so massively lobbying to keep the market rigged in their favor and seniors at their mercy, including many literally choosing between food and medicine," said Accountable.US.

"By empowering Medicare to directly negotiate prices for prescription drugs Congress can end the days of seniors missing lifesaving medications because they cannot afford them," said Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

"In California we know that people should not go into debt to receive lifesaving medication," Gov. Gavin Newsom said while announcing a new $100 million plan.

"This compromise will lower prices, cut costs, and stop the drug corporations from raising their prices faster than the rate of inflation," said Margarida Jorge of Lower Drug Prices Now.

Three pharmaceutical companies distributed 81 million opioid painkillers in a West Virginia county over an eight-year period, but the federal judge ruled they were not liable for the damage done by the opioid epidemic.

"Governments must take immediate actions to bypass the WTO's prioritization of pharmaceutical monopolies over human lives," says a global coalition of nearly 300 civil society groups.

One campaigner slammed the agreement as "a technocratic fudge aimed at saving reputations, not lives."

The text proposed by rich nations, argues Hugo López-Gatell, "is nothing more than a PR stunt intended to kill off the possibility of a genuine intellectual property waiver."