Jesuit Refuge Service/USA welcomes the Biden Administration’s support for relaxing intellectual property rights for COVID 19 vaccines to promote global production and access to the vaccines.

Given the urgency of the pandemic that continues to spread around the world, and after millions of dollars of public funds were invested in the development of the vaccines, it is essential to do everything possible to promote their manufacture and distribution globally. As Pope Francis has said, we cannot let “the law of the marketplace and patents take precedence over the law of love and the health of humanity”.

“Making vaccines available throughout the world as quickly and broadly as possible by relaxing intellectual property rights that limit their production is essential to saving lives and bringing an end to the pandemic for all of us,” said Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director of JRS/USA. “Without the broadest possible access to vaccines, people on the margins of our societies, including refugees and other forcibly displaced people, will continue to suffer and lose their lives to this deadly disease.”