politics

Pushing back against the stance of the IFPMA and these Global North governments, the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over one hundred development and health NGOs, trade unions, and human rights campaign groups, notes that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the twenty biggest pharmaceutical giants spent almost as much on payouts to shareholders and executives as they did on research and development. Between 2020 and 2022, these firms spent $377.6 billion on such largesse and $414.6 billion on R&D. The People’s Vaccine Alliance argues that this is proof that IP waivers and the access-and-benefit mechanism would not dent these businesses or harm innovation.

grotesque