Profits, Greed and Big Pharma

My Oxford Union case for why patients—not profits—must drive medicine (and a footnote on Charlie Kirk and Oxford)

This past June, I had the privilege of debating at the Oxford Union on one of the most consequential questions in modern medicine: what role should profits have in healthcare? Drawing on years of reporting for my bestselling book PHARMA, I made the case that when money dictates medical decisions, patients suffer—and too often, they die. In just twelve minutes, I laid out why a system driven by shareholder returns cannot put patients first.

Before Trisha Posner and I set off for the U.K., I asked Konstantin Kisin for any advice, since he had a celebrated debate at the Union. His reply was simple: “Smash it.” I am glad to report that those of us who argued in favor of that night’s debate proposition—This house believes that profit motives have no place in public health—did just that. We carried the evening with a 10 to 1 post-debate voting margin.

On my side, I was joined by an Oxford student and medical physician, Diana Mandewo, and Professor Dame Ijeoma Uchegbu, a nanoscientist and the president of Wolfson Coll…