Charles, Tobeka, Din, Nandita, and Baby ‘Janey’. Four of these people have struggled for their lives. One of them has lost her life. All because greedy companies put profits before people.

This is what can happen when companies get hold of patents and other monopolies on medicines and then exploit them to make money. The patents surround the medicine like a wall, letting no one else make the medicine more affordably. And with no competition from other producers to challenge them, companies abuse their hold on the monopoly by pushing prices up and up so that people can’t afford to buy them.

High drug prices, propped up by company monopolies, are why four of the people in our five stories struggled to get the lifesaving treatment they urgently needed. And why while our baby is alive and safe, many others have not been able to get the same protection.

It’s why governments need to understand that patents can have a terrible impact on people’s lives and shouldn’t be allowed to decide who lives and who dies.

And why governments now need to get behind the plan proposed at the World Trade Organization to drop patents and monopolies on new medicines and other technologies developed to tackle the coronavirus during the pandemic.

It’s the only way we will be able to ensure fair access to treatment against the virus for everyone, everywhere.

Now that’s something worth fighting for, right?

Five Lives. Five Stories. Five People.