How can drug companies make huge profits from vaccines while people in the global south die from lack of access to medical care? How does the global regime of intellectual property rights enable this inequality? And what is the role of Bill Gates in defending this system?

In this interview, Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni argues that vaccine inequality is not a market but a policy failure. From the HIV crisis in the early 2000s to the recent pandemic, the public has repeatedly shouldered the risk for the development of life-saving medicines while private corporations have reaped obscene profits. How can we break Big Pharma’s power and develop an alternative health system?

Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni is the co-leader of the policy group of the People’s Vaccine Alliance. She is a senior health advisor with 40 years of experience in health policy and programming with international and national health and development agencies including multilateral agencies, NGOs and governments.

This video is part of a monthly series on the securitisation of health. Watch all videos here.

Video edited by Josh Akinwumi.