Tech sharing, not tech hoarding: Covid-19, global solidarity, and the failed responsibility of the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of health technologies to mitigate against the spread of the disease and improve care, dominantly including life-saving vaccines. But the pandemic has also highlighted that the current biopharmaceutical business model, based on the enclosure of these technologies and on the immense accumulation of capital it enables, leads to vast inequalities in healthcare particularly in low and middle-income countries. We believe that the pharmaceutical industry has a moral duty to enable and enact global solidarity through tech sharing instead of tech hoarding, but judging by current technology transfer practices we question their willingness to assume their role in organizing healthcare markets through solidaristic principles. In the absence of a voluntary adoption of solidaristic principles and practices by biopharmaceutical firms, the institutionalization of global solidarity as a fundamental organizing principle for healthcare markets is necessary to strengthen resilience and know-how globally. With this call, we add to existing conceptualizations of solidarity by (a) introducing a global level of solidarity and (b) thinking through the concept not as an abstract humanistic stance but as a concrete organizing principle for global healthcare markets.

Solidarity during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from a nine-country interview study in Europe

“…In light of this, we strongly encourage public health and government officials to institutionalise practices of solidarity more systematically. Such manifestations and policies of solidarity might include, but are not limited to, policies introducing a universal basic income, strategies to award and recognise the hard work of healthcare workers in the pandemic either in monetary or structural terms or sharing resources such as vaccines with countries with less access (Geiger and Gross 2023;Geiger and McMahon 2021).…”

Telemedicine's role in transforming healthcare delivery in the pharmaceutical industry: A systematic review

“…Moreover, the pharmaceutical industry's engagement with telemedicine extends to addressing the challenges of global health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic underscored the critical need for health technologies that can mitigate disease spread and improve care delivery, highlighting the industry's responsibility to promote global solidarity through technology sharing rather than hoarding (Geiger & Gross, 2023). This approach not only facilitates access to life-saving vaccines and treatments but also fosters a more equitable and resilient global healthcare infrastructure.…”

Root causes of epistemic (in)justice for the global south in health ethics and bioethics

“…Regarding COVID-19, it has clearly highlighted the fact that there is no part of world, including the African continent itself, where Africans are treated with equity vis-à-vis other human beings. The experimental vaccines produced in the global North against the pandemic were hoarded,5 by the most powerful and richest countries of the global North and some sent to Africa only when they were close to expiry. Meanwhile, various plant-based remedies discovered by some African healers against the virus were ridiculed and sidelined by global North international agencies and even by the WHO whose close relationship with for-profit health research organisations6 has significantly eroded traditional medical ethics in the global North itself 7…”