Michael is joined by Elizabeth de Somer, chief executive officer at Medicines Australia – the peak body representing research-based pharmaceutical companies in Australia, who encourages the Australian Government to urgently step up its commitments, particularly in financial support to the COVAX program and to introduce a commitment to share doses with COVAX.

COVAX aims to accelerate the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, and guarantee fair and equitable access for every country.

Since the start of the pandemic, the global biopharmaceutical industry has worked to find solutions to the Covid-19 virus. This tremendous collaboration has been enabled – not undermined – by the international intellectual property system.

As a result, more than 6.5 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered around the world, and 23.67 million are administered every day, saving countless lives and reviving economies.

In Australia, more than half of the population is vaccinated against this deadly virus. As our country marches towards a fully vaccinated population, there is still some way to go before we can achieve this on a global scale.

Download this podcast here