Jeremy Corbyn’s big pharma policy is not ‘radical’ – it’s part of a new consensus to tackle a rogue industry

For too long big pharmaceutical corporations have held patients to ransom by charging extortionate prices for life-saving medicines. And at least one former Conservative minister should applaud Jeremy Corbyn’s conference announcement yesterday, aimed at constraining this powerful sector.

Former commercial secretary to the Treasury, and one-time Goldman Sachs economist, Jim O’Neill, is not your traditional radical, but earlier this year he compared the socially destructive practices of big pharma to the way the banks gambled with our livelihoods in the financial crisis. He warned that nationalised industry might be the only way to solve the coming catastrophe of antibiotic resistance. read more