IT SHOULD come as no surprise that the current pharmaceutical model prioritises profits over people. Across the world, multinational drug companies shape research agendas not around public health needs, but around the promise of financial return. 
 
Diseases that primarily affect working-class communities and lower-to-middle-income countries are routinely neglected because they are deemed less profitable. Instead, the industry pours billions into developing drugs that offer little real therapeutic advancement but extend patent protection and corporate monopolies.
 
The consequences of this profit-first approach are felt acutely within Scotland’s NHS. Rising drug prices drain NHS resources and have become a convenient excuse in government pay negotiations. 
 
Ministers cite soaring pharmaceutical costs as a reason why there is “no money” for fair wage increases, while health boards are pushed to make cuts across all services just to keep up with inflation in medicine, energy, and agency workers’ costs. This is not simply a budgeting issue — it’s a structural problem embedded in the privatised nature of drug production and distribution.
 
The figures are staggering. According to Global Justice Now, “Our research revealed that pharmaceutical companies have charged the NHS an eye-watering £13 billion for just 10 medications over the previous decade, charging mark-ups of up to 23,000 per cent.” 
 
Such statistics expose the exploitative relationship between public need and private greed. The NHS, founded on socialist principles of universality and collective care, has been forced into dependency on corporations whose core motivation is shareholder profit.
 
If we are serious about defending and revitalising the founding principles of the NHS — comprehensive, universal healthcare free at the point of use — then we must look beyond temporary cost controls or voluntary industry reforms. 
 
We need long-term investment in a publicly owned and democratically controlled pharmaceutical sector. By bringing drug research, manufacturing, and distribution into public hands, Scotland can ensure that medical innovation serves social needs rather than corporate profit.
 
A publicly owned system would allow investment in the research that the private market neglects: chronic conditions in working-class communities, tropical and infectious diseases in the global South, and preventive treatments that improve health outcomes rather than maximise patent life. 
 
It would also mean that the NHS could produce essential medicines at cost, reducing dependency on multinational suppliers and ensuring fair pay for healthcare workers without compromising patient care.
 
Such a transformation requires political will and a new economic strategy. The North Lanarkshire Trade Union Council (NLTUC) strongly supports the TUC’s call for a “high-profile and constructive public campaign to strongly make the case for a more radical, progressive and credible economic strategy for national renewal.” At the heart of this renewal must be the NHS — and the industries that sustain it.
 
That’s why the NLTUC called on the Scottish Trades Union Congress to take concrete steps toward a new model of pharmaceutical provision. Our motion was passed unanimously at congress this year, calling for:
 
 • Convene a conference of unions and launch a research programme to develop proposals for publicly funded, owned, and planned pharmaceutical manufacturing and distribution in Scotland. 
 
 • Support the Global Justice Now campaign against the exploitative practices of “Big Pharma.”
 
 • Lobby the Scottish government for the nationalisation of existing pharmaceutical manufacturing, testing, and distribution facilities across the country. 
 
These measures are not radical — they are rational. They recognise that health is a public good, not a commodity. By replacing the profit-driven pharmaceutical model with one rooted in democratic ownership and accountability, Scotland can take a bold step toward restoring the NHS’s founding vision: care based on need, not wealth.
 
A publicly owned pharmaceutical sector would not only strengthen the NHS but also create secure, skilled jobs, foster innovation, and demonstrate that another model of healthcare — one that puts people before profit — is both possible and necessary.
 
Drew Gilchrist is vice chair of NLTUC and chair of Unite’s national young members committee.