Right to Breathe Campaign
Gayle Pledger is a UK CF parent, founder of the grassroots global campaign group Vertex Save Us, and the Right to Breathe campaign, a senior organiser with patient-led UK organisation Just Treatment and a Big Issue Changemaker 2025, she is a global health advocate dedicated to ensuring equitable access to lifesaving CF medicines.
Gayle’s advocacy journey began in the UK, where she helped lead a nationwide campaign that secured NHS access to Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ CF drug Orkambi after years of deadlock. That fight became deeply personal when, in 2020, her own daughter’s life was transformed by starting Kaftrio, a breakthrough treatment previously out of reach for many families. Recognising that prohibitive drug prices would leave thousands of CF patients worldwide without access, Gayle co-founded the grassroots global campaign group Vertex Save Us (VSU) later that year.
Within months of its launch, VSU had grown into a community of thousands of supporters across more than 60 countries. Families, clinicians and advocates united under the same mission: to challenge the injustice of lifesaving treatments being priced far beyond reach. The campaign has raised international awareness, engaged directly with Vertex executives, and even submitted an official complaint to the United Nations over the company’s disregard for humanitarian principles.
In 2023, recognising the need for stronger structures and resources, Gayle and her allies launched the Right to Breathe campaign in partnership with Just Treatment. She played a central role in orchestrating a landmark moment: simultaneous calls for patent challenges to Vertex’s monopoly in Brazil, India, South Africa, and Ukraine. This unprecedented, coordinated international action drew global media attention, including a full-page feature in The New York Times. Significantly, all four countries have since secured some form of access to Kaftrio/Trikafta, demonstrating the power of grassroots, cross-border solidarity.
Gayle’s work now focuses on amplifying the voices of CF families worldwide, supporting parents and patients to speak out, and collaborating with human rights experts to challenge corporate practices that put profits before lives. Her advocacy is grounded in the conviction that access to essential medicines is a fundamental human right, not a privilege determined by wealth or geography.
This fight remains deeply personal. Gayle has lived the reality faced by thousands of parents globally - knowing a treatment exists that could save their child’s life, but being denied access due to cost. That experience fuels her ongoing commitment to empower families, build global networks of solidarity, and push back against systemic barriers that allow children and young people to die unnecessarily when treatments exist.
In recognition of her efforts, Gayle was named one of the Big Issue Changemakers 2025, highlighting leaders driving social justice and change across the UK. Her work has been featured by the UK CF Trust, The Lancet, cross-border journalism cooperative Investigate Europe and other international media. She was also part of the UK-based team that petitioned for CF medicines to be added to the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List - a crucial step in strengthening global access. As part of this application, Gayle gave an in-person presentation to the WHO Expert Committee in Geneva in May 2025.
Gayle’s work is ultimately about equality, empowerment, and saving lives. By uniting families across borders and giving them the tools to act, she has shown that ordinary people have extraordinary power to challenge injustice and force change.
S06.3- Access for All: The Ethics of High Pricing
Thursday, October 23, 2025
2:30 PM - 4:30 PM PDT