Calls are rising for a waiver of patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines - but would it do anything to accelerate their rollout in the developing world?
Manuela Saragosa speaks to an advocate of the "People's Vaccine" campaign, which aims to end the control of the major pharmaceutical companies. Els Torreele of University College London says much of the research and development of these vaccines was publicly funded anyway, and the need to negotiate patent agreements prevents other companies from rapidly scaling up vaccine production.
The need to speed up the rollout is testified to by the South African professor of vaccinology Shabir Madhi, who points out that his own country has yet to begin immunising the general public. But Thomas Cueni of the global pharmaceutical industry body, the IFPMA, says they are already on course to vaccinate the world within a year.
Producer: Laurence Knight
(Picture: A man is vaccinated at a hospital in Nairobi, Kenya; Credit: Robert Bonet/NurPhoto via Getty Images)