Dalla Lana School of Public Health

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The Health Inc: Corporations, Capitalism, and the commercial determinants of health seminar series is co-hosted by the Centre for Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing.

Abstract

The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines showcased the promise of rapid translation of research into global health interventions. However, countries in the Global South faced, and continue to face, great difficulties in accessing vaccines. This seminar will discuss the root causes of global disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines, including key commercial determinants of health such as the commodification of essential medicines and intellectual property regimes. Low and middle-income countries, and especially African nations, prioritized a TRIPS waiver and regional manufacturing capacity as ways to address vaccine equity. In this seminar, researchers will discuss initiatives on the African continent around vaccine manufacturing and the promises and challenges posed by vaccine hoarding, intellectual property rights, pricing, global health law and pandemic treaties to discuss the current state of vaccine equity and what might happen in a future pandemic.

Suggested readings:

Forman, L., Jackson, C., and Fajber, K. (2023). Can we move beyond vaccine apartheid? Examining the determinants of the COVID-19 vaccine gap. Global Public Health, 18(1), 1-18.

Sekalala, S., Forman, L., Hodgson, T., Mulumba, M., Namyalo-Ganafa, H., & Meier, B. M. (2021). Decolonising human rights: how intellectual property laws result in unequal access to the COVID-19 vaccine. BMJ global health, 6(7), e006169. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006169