Epilogue: States and Vaccines in the age of Covid-19

Advances in the technology underlying vaccine production played a role. Around the turn of the millennium the vaccine market was growing far more rapidly than that for pharmaceuticals. Vaccines became a major source of growth for the industry. Publication of the genetic sequence of the virus pointed the way to development of a vaccine. A number of vaccines, like that of BioNTech-Pfizer, were developed and produced in cross-national consortia. Many more were developed with funding from multiple sources, both national and international. In some places vaccine nationalism expressed itself in rejection of the products of global capitalism. A domestically developed and produced vaccine promises self-reliance and may bolster both national pride and ideological conformity. In the course of 2020-2021, the global vaccine innovation system was coming increasingly to resemble a complex game: a game in which ‘players’ competed for political and strategic gains as well as markets and profits.