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Past and present world leaders have urged that any possible vaccine and COVID-19 treatment should be made available to everyone free of charge.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan were among more than 140 signatories to a letter saying the vaccine should not be patented, while science should be shared among nations.
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The World Health Assembly (WHA), the policy-making body of the World Health Organization, holds its annual general meeting next week.
The signatories asked WHA to join behind the cause.
“Governments and international partners must come together around a global guarantee that ensures that when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced quickly at scale and made available to all, in all countries, in a comprehensive manner. free, “says the letter.
“The same applies to all treatments, diagnostics, and other technologies for COVID-19.”
The letter was also signed by Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
Former presidents and prime ministers among the signatories included Shaukat Aziz, Jan Peter Balkenende, José Manuel Barroso, Gordon Brown, Helen Clark, Felipe González, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Aleksander Kwasniewski, Mary McAleese, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Juan Manuel Santos.
The letter comes amid fury in France after pharmaceutical giant Sanofi said it would reserve the first shipments of any COVID-19 vaccine for the United States.
French multinational chief executive Paul Hudson said the United States would get the first dib because its government was helping to fund vaccine research.
His comments sparked outrage on Thursday from officials and health experts.
African Union President Ramaphosa said: “As African countries, we are determined that the COVID-19 vaccine must be free of patents, rapidly manufactured and distributed, and free for all.
“No one should be pushed to the tail end of the vaccine because of where they live or what they earn.”
