Activists led by the organization Global Justice Now staged a protest outside the building in Cambridge in the west of England, which houses the office of the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca. This was reported on Tuesday by the Daily Express newspaper.
The protesters called on the company to give up the patent rights for the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as to ensure equal access to vaccination for all people.
“Scientists at the University of Oxford — a publicly funded institution-have developed this life-saving vaccine through research and development, which is also 97% publicly funded. The resulting vaccine should be available to everyone, but AstraZeneca took over the drug and privatized it.
Britain benefits from the highly effective vaccines that are now available, but people in low-and middle-income countries still die by the thousands every day from COVID-19, “ said Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now.
The activists, chaining themselves to the company’s office, are also demanding that AstraZeneca share its vaccine production technologies with the World Health Organization and provide greater support to developing countries in the fight against coronavirus.
This weekend, protesters hung placards at bus stops across the UK, marking the level of public investment in vaccine research and development, as well as showing the profits of pharmaceutical companies.
