Are pharmaceutical firms going to profit from coronavirus vaccines?

Analysis: Western governments are striking deals with pharmaceutical giants over potential vaccine doses and also haggling over prices. But do these companies have a right to make big profits from these treatments? And what could governments do to stop that happening? Ben Chu investigates

Governments have significantly funded much of the research, arguably making private profits from these treatments unjustified (Reuters)

The UK government announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi under which the two pharmaceutical companies will provide millions of doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccines to Britain if they prove viable.

This is the fourth such agreement ministers have signed with multinational pharma companies.

The government says these deals will give the UK “the most likely chance of finding a safe and effective vaccine at the quickest speed”.