Matter of Opinion

Just 12.5 percent of the world has been inoculated against Covid-19. To protect every country from the pandemic, regardless of economic level, there are many approaches global leaders could take. But they have to act fast. In this state of planetary emergency, should pharmaceutical companies that make vaccines be forced to break their patents? Is that the best or fastest way to get lower-income countries to catch up with vaccination rates? Weighing the pros and cons of a vaccine intellectual property waiver with Jane Coaston this week is Rachel Silverman, a policy fellow at the Center for Global Development, and Tahir Amin, a co-founder and co-executive director of I-MAK, the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Tahir Amin and Rohit Malpani’s article for STAT, “Covid-19 has exposed the limits of the pharmaceutical market model”
• The.Ink newsletter, “Of Patents and Power”
• Harvard Law Bill of Health blog, “The Covid-19 Vaccine Patent Waiver: The Wrong Tool for the Right Goal”
• The Economist, “Michelle McMurry-Heath on maintaining intellectual property amid Covid-19”
• Times Opinion Guest Essay, “The West Has Been Hoarding More Than Vaccines”