Pandemic vaccines and 'The Global Public Good': a call for distributive justice.

Abstract

Whether (1) vaccines produced in response to a pandemic should be considered "global public goods" and whether (2) Big Pharma companies should waive intellectual property rights for pandemic disease vaccines are important questions in global health ethics and public health policy. The extended argument advanced here (a) affirms such vaccines are global public goods and (b) supports those among low- and middle-income nations who, during the COVID-19 pandemic, proposed waiver of intellectual property rights. As a matter of distributive justice, we argue that (c) Big Pharma, national regulatory agencies, and international intergovernmental organizations such as the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation have a moral responsibility to ensure developing countries have equitable access to pandemic vaccines. Hence, (d) there should be appropriate technology transfer for production and distribution of pandemic-responsive vaccines in these nations.