Discussion Proposal: Increasing Vaccine Access in a Shorter Time

As we have all experienced recently, to prevent pandemic outbreaks or mitigate an evolving pandemic crisis, it is of utmost importance to guarantee timely and global access to safe and effective vaccines. Through their pre-print, Milena Leybold (University of Innsbruck) and Konstantin Hondros (University of Duisburg-Essen) make a step towards opening a debate on “Increasing Vaccine Access in a Shorter Time. Alternative Regulatory Frameworks in Response to Pandemics.” 

Multiple variables can impede timely and global access, ranging from inability to set up production sites to practices of licensing intellectual property (IP). Milena Leybold and Konstantin Hondros problematize how the regulatory environment of vaccine development, approval, production, and deployment might have detrimental effects on vaccine access. They argue that regulatory approval practices are a key variable for timely and global vaccine access and that it is necessary to improve their build-up into regulatory frameworks to be prepared for future pandemics. As one potential starting point for discussion, they suggest a modular approach to vaccine regulation that allows more flexible combinations of existing, unconventional, or even controversial regulatory practices to respond to evolving pandemic threats. 

Please find the pre-print here: https://zenodo.org/record/8071431