Intellectual property rights hinder access to affordable drugs for all

The World Health Organization (WHO) has called it “vaccine apartheid”: developed economies who can pay for COVID-19 vaccines have much higher rates of vaccination than developing economies. Only 21 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, partly because pharmaceutical companies have refused to temporarily waive their IP rights over the vaccines.

To end the unjust divide, in 2020 South Africa and India submitted a proposal to the WTO seeking temporary waivers of the enforcement and implementation of intellectual property (IP) rights to improve access and affordability of vaccines and other treatment products for COVID-19.