Redefining the TRIPS Agreement to Accommodate en masse Compulsory Licensing of Vaccines & Other Pharmaceuticals for the Treatment of Covid-19

Globally, over 48 million cases and over one million deaths have resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of this publication. Governments and pharmaceutical companies are simultaneously racing for effective treatments and vaccines against the deadly virus, giving rise to a vaccine nationalism in effort to claim a global monopoly on recovery. This Article analyzes the possible compulsory licensing fallout over COVID-19 vaccines and pharmaceuticals under the current terms of the TRIPS Agreement, advocating for clarifying the ambiguous language of TRIPS, creating a standardized compensation scheme to patent holders, and developing a third-party arbitration mechanism to specifically address compulsory licensing disputes over COVID-19 pharmaceuticals and vaccines. These proposed solutions aim to balance the interests of patent holders with the interests of the global population.