Access to Covid-19 Vaccine: Patents vs. People?

Summary The article is looking into the issue of global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines from the perspective of intellectual property rights, in particular patents. The discussed topics include instruments that could potentially facilitate access to patent protected health technologies (Covid-19 vaccines). Some of them are non-voluntary in nature, like the compulsory licenses in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement and others rely on the voluntary participation of the pharmaceutical industry, such as the C-TAP and the Medicines Patent Pool. The article also explores the controversial initiative regarding an “intellectual property waiver” proposed by a number of WTO members.