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

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of health technologies to mitigate the spread of the disease and improve care, including through life-saving vaccines. But the pandemic has also highlighted the vast inequalities in healthcare globally that the current biopharmaceutical business model engenders, based on the patent enclosure of these technologies and on the immense capital accumulation that this system creates. We believe that it is imperative on the pharmaceutical industry 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 carry costs in organizing healthcare markets through solidaristic principles. While ample opportunities have existed during the Covid-19 pandemic for firms to work towards global healthcare sustainability and equity, these practices have remained fragmented acts of charity at best and mere publicity stunts at worst. In the absence of the voluntary adoption of solidaristic organizational practices by biopharmaceutical firms, the institutionalization of global solidarity as a fundamental organizing principle for healthcare markets by public bodies, chiefly the WHO, is necessary to strengthen resilience and know-how globally.European Commission Horizon 2020European Research CouncilTo check date and citing details in 6 m. To update set text accordinglyStill ahead of print, checked 27/11/202