The government of Colombia has dealt a welcome blow to Big Pharma, giving thousands of people in the South American country a better chance of accessing the life-saving HIV drug dolutegravir.

Previously, the treatment was only available in Colombia under a patent held by GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and the Japanese company, Shionogi. The government has now issued a compulsory license that will lower the cost of treatment by as much as 80 per cent – in the words of Global Justice Now’s Daisy Pearson, the move shows that it is ‘possible to break Big Pharma’s monopolies on lifesaving drugs’.