Pope Francis has warned us about a system that elevates profits above people. "Today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality," he wrote in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium. "Such an economy kills." In the case of access to medicines, Francis' dire prediction is proven true thousands of times each day.
It is hard to imagine an injustice more intolerable than a sick person being blocked from receiving the medicine that would alleviate her suffering, or even save her life. As Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations has pointed out, the scope of this tragedy is breathtaking: Two billion people lack access to essential medicines, costing 10 million lives each year.