Intellectual property rights need to be subverted to ensure global vaccine access

Abstract

### Summary box A commentary by Murphy and colleagues,1 published in BMJ Global Health on the 19 February 2021, brings attention to the unprecedented efforts for COVID-19 vaccine discovery and asks if the world could learn from this example to better facilitate access to medicines in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). My response to their comment claims that though well intended and to the point, the commentary misses a crucial bottleneck in research and development, namely, intellectual property rights (IPRs) that hinder the actualisation of global vaccine access. Instead of making vaccine knowledge available openly, IPRs protect industry benefits over human health and well-being. The current arrangement is epidemiologically short-sighted and unjust. The brunt of vaccine capitalism is felt most in LMICs and Africa in particular.2 Presently, philanthropic programmes to deliver vaccines to LMICs are not fast enough, and a social movement is picking up speed to subvert IPRs that are upheld by rich countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Global health communities need to take a stronger stance against IPRs that are protecting vaccine pharma over the world’s poorest and leverage political will to make global vaccine access a reality. IPRs …