Price gouging has always been an issue with big pharma companies, but to think that they would threaten the lives of so many in need during this pandemic is just inexcusable. They have raised the price on almost all the drugs that have proven even the least bit effective on COVID 19, including sedation medicines and pain killers used on Coronavirus patients, as well. Affordable Drug users found that out of 245 drug price increases, 61 are commonly used to treat COVID 19.

With these prices going up, it means that more people won’t be able to get the help that they need or they will be in a lot of debt. This especially affects the elderly – our own grandparents – who don’t normally have as much income or the strength to just tough it out. Pharmaceutical companies need to stop making life-saving drugs so expensive.

The cost of medications like morphine and ketamine, used for pain and sedation of COVID-19 patients, has gone up about 10 percent during the pandemic, clearly taking advantage of an opportunity to make more money. A company called Gilead Sciences announced that a drug called Remdesivir, which is used to treat COVID-19, will cost $48,000 per U.S. patient, thirty three percent more than it costs in other countries.

This isn’t Gilead’s first time doing this, though. They became infamous for charging $84,000 per treatment of Sovaldi, a groundbreaking Hepatitis-C drug, a few years ago. They, alongside AbbVie, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, dramatically increasing drugs’ pricing and making peoples’ lives harder for their own gain.

In a shocking survey by West Health done last year, 34 million U.S. adults said they knew someone who died after not getting the treatment they needed, and 58 million adults reported not being able to pay for the drugs they needed. This is unacceptable in a country that thinks of itself as the “greatest.”

Some people could say that since drug costs affect the majority of people, it’s not a big issue. We are called to care for the most vulnerable, which could be most of us if we were faced with a five-figure hospital bill.

Others say that drug price gouging is a myth or that it was made up in order to make people give more money away, but evidence shows that drugs have been getting steadily more expensive and that has just increased during this pandemic.

Because of these essential drug price increases and the greediness of drug companies, people around the globe – but especially in America –  have had more trouble getting the help they need and deserve. Do you want your loved ones to be the next victims of big pharma and their price gouging, or do you want to help make a change and save lives? I urge you to talk to your local representatives, every little bit can make a difference.