Multi-billion dollar corporation Merck has been exposed as a ringleader of a Big Pharma plot in South Africa to keep the cost of drugs – and their own profits – high while keeping medicines out of the hands of millions of people whose lives depend on them.

Right now in South Africa, Big Pharma is granted almost every patent they apply for. This means they can keep the costs of drugs for deadly diseases like cancer and tuberculosis out of reach for the people who need treatment.  But South Africa is considering reforms that would increase access to low-cost, generic medicines, and better protect public health. Big Pharma’s secret strategy is trying to stop these critical reforms from going ahead. 

Merck, along with more than 20 other multinational pharmaceutical companies, put their profits over the health of millions of people and organized a secret and expensive lobbying effort to maintain the harmful status quo. Following the exposure of Big Pharma’s dirty tricks, and after widespread criticism from Doctors Without Borders, the Treatment Action Campaign, SECTION27, and others, several companies have dropped out of the campaign and promised not to interfere with South Africa’s patent law reform – but not Merck.

With your help, we can put enough public pressure on Merck and Big Pharma to convince them to back down. Sign below to tell Merck that people matter more than profits.