Humanitarian organisation Oxfam said that vaccinating the poorest half of humanity — approximately 3.7 billion people — against the coronavirus could cost less than the profit made by big pharmaceutical companies in four months.

In a statement, Oxfam urged governments and pharmaceutical companies to guarantee that vaccines, tests will be patent-free and equitably distributed to all nations and people.

Oxfam proposed a four-point global plan that calls for mandatory sharing of all Covid-19 related knowledge, a commitment to deliver additional global vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity, a globally agreed, equitable distribution plan, and a commitment to fix the broken system for the research and development of new medicines.