Protecting Democracy [1]

American democracy is in jeopardy, from the disastrous Citizens United ruling that flooded our politics with corporate cash to the immoral assault on voting rights. We work every day to defend against these threats and advance bold reforms.

Tell Congress: Pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act

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Generative Artificial Intelligence and Threats to Democracy

Protecting Elected Officials from Threats
Making Government Work [2]

The U.S. government should work for the public, not corporations or industry. It should safeguard consumers, workers and the environment, and be funded well enough to do so. The budget process must not be obstructed by partisanship.

Get Corporate Money Out of Politics

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It’s Time to Cut the Bloated Pentagon Budget to Fund People, Not Military Contractors

Ensuring Public Money Does Not Go To Private Equity
Consumer & Worker Safeguards [3]

Every day, Big Banks, Big Polluters, and Big Tech companies are threatening our economy, our environment, and our democracy – sacrificing Main Street Americans and our families on the altar of corporate profits. Public Citizen advocates for ordinary people by taking on corporate interests and their cronies in government.

Don’t Let Big Tech Write Our Digital Privacy Laws

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Public Citizen Calls on Presidential Candidates, Parties to Pledge Not to Use Dangerous, Manipulative Deepfakes

Within Reach: Banker Pay Reform
Safe & Affordable Drugs & Devices [4]

Prescription drugs are unaffordable and new drugs and devices often are approved without being proven safe and effective. Public Citizen challenges Big Pharma, device manufacturers and federal regulators to make drugs and medical devices safe, effective and accessible to all.

Tell President Biden: Make Meds Affordable

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Health Care [5]

Health care in the U.S. leaves too many people out, costs too much and doesn’t meet acceptable standards of quality. Much of the care that we get is unaffordable, unnecessary or harmful. Public Citizen advocates Medicare for All, stronger oversight of dangerous doctors and safe clinical trials.

Win Medicare for All

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Report: Ranking of the Rate of State Medical Boards’ Serious Disciplinary Actions, 2021-2023

Report: Thirty-One Years of Pharmaceutical Industry Criminal and Civil Penalties: 1991-2021
Globalization & Trade [6]

Global Trade Watch’s mission is to ensure that in this era of globalization, a majority have the opportunity to enjoy economic security, a healthy environment, safe food, medicines and products, access to quality affordable services such as health care and the exercise of democratic decision-making about the matters that affect our lives.

Global Trade Watch has led the fight against corporate-rigged “trade” agreements that provide special powers for Big Pharma to raise medicine prices, promote the outsourcing of jobs to low-wage countries and undermine the food safety and other safeguards on which our families rely.

For decades, we have fought for progressive alternatives that benefit people and the planet. Learn more about our work.

Join the Trade Justice Movement

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Climate & Energy [7]

The climate crisis is the challenge of our time. We can fix it with solutions that will make us healthier and more economically secure. We must act quickly to make our economy run on renewable power — and ensure that disadvantaged families and displaced workers share equitably in the new economy. We also must fight the corrupting power of fossil fuel companies and ensure that energy regulators are effective and publicly accountable.

Tell Toyota: Go all-in on EVs

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Climate Roadmap for U.S. Financial Regulation

Toyota’s Troubling Electric Vehicle Track Record
Justice & the Courts [8]

Litigation can remedy or deter wrongdoing, impact policy and meaningfully slow abuses of power. Whether suing on behalf of our members to ensure the honest functioning of government, or representing individual consumers seeking redress in court, our litigation draws on our expertise in administrative law, constitutional law, and government transparency.

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Medicines Patent Pool

The Medicines Patent Pool

In December 2009, UNITAID created the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) as a separate entity to focus on increasing access to HIV medicines in developing countries. The Pool’s objective is to facilitate licensing agreements with patent holders and generic pharmaceutical manufacturers. Unlike state-based compulsory licenses or patent oppositions, MPP licenses can reach many countries at once, potentially changing the global access picture for a given drug.

Public Citizen sees the success of the MPP as an invaluable element in our fight to expand access to medicines. But for the Medicines Patent Pool to truly work, those of us in the global health community must continue to press for conditions which allow it to succeed. The MPP has the potential to be a game-changer for global health which contributes to saving millions of lives, but it can’t do it alone.

May 15, 2014 – Boehringer Ingelheim’s response to Public Citizen’s letter regarding the Medicines Patent Pool

April 25, 2014 – Novartis’ response to Public Citizen’s letter regarding the Medicines Patent Pool

April 23, 2014 – Johnson & Johnson’s response to Public Citizen’s letter regarding the Medicines Patent Pool

April 8, 2014 – Public Citizen letters to AbbVie, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, F. Hoffman-La Roche, Gilead, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Pfizer and Shionogi regarding the latest licensing agreement between ViiV Healthcare and the Medicines Patent Pool

April 1, 2014 – Medicines Patent Pool-ViiV Healthcare Licensing AgreementStatement of Peter Maybarduk, Global Access to Medicines Program Director

December 12, 2013 – Press Release: Medicines Patent Pool Reaches Licensing Deal with BMS to Expand Access to AIDS Drug

April 23, 2013 – Johnson & Johnson response to Public Citizen letter on the Medicines Patent Pool

April 22, 2013 – Bristol-Myers Squibb response to Public Citizen letter on the Medicines Patent Pool

April 2, 2013 – Public Citizen letters to Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and Pfizer regarding the ViiV Healthcare and Medicines Patent Pool Agreement

February 28, 2013 – Press Release: Medicines Patent Pool Reaches Licensing Deal for GSK Patents to Expand Access to Medicines for Children with HIV

December 22, 2011 – A brief history of Johnson & Johnson’s refusal to negotiate with the Medicines Patent Pool

December 15, 2011 – Johnson & Johnson response to Public Citizen letter on the Medicines Patent Pool