What happens when we run out of medicines? Medical authorities around the world are pondering this question as they struggle with shortages of a range of essential medicines amid a global drug supply crisis.

Separately, England’s former chief medical officer Sally Davies, warns us of the growing threat posed by drug-resistant superbugs. The antimicrobial resistance crisis could make the COVID-19 pandemic “look minor”, Davies claims, if not met with urgent action, including the development of new antibiotics.

At first glance, these two crises seem to have little in common other than the serious threat they pose to human life. But they are, in fact, born out of a single problem: Big Pharma’s prioritisation of profit, which disincentivises it from both keeping essential medicines accessible and developing new medicines we desperately need.