Intellectual Property, Patents and the Pandemic

Abstract

The news in April 1955 that Jonas Salk, a scientist at the
University of Pittsburgh, had developed a working polio vaccine
must surely count as one of the most uplifting and momentous
announcements of the twentieth century. However, it is hard to imagine a starker contrast than that between the views of Salk, who sought a “people’s vaccine,” and those of Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla.