Amnesty International Monday released a report attributing the “human rights catastrophe in 2021” to unequal vaccination distribution by pharmaceutical companies.

The report revealed that major companies that produced the vaccinations used aggressive strategies to profit from the pandemic. Amnesty International issued a target for vaccination rollout to lower-income countries. However, it was found that Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, who produced almost 5 billion doses in total in 2021, only distributed between 1-2% to those in the lowest income countries. The assessment found that these companies ‘blocked and lobbied against the sharing of intellectual property and prioritized wealthy countries over the countries most in need.

The World Health Organization (WHO) predicted that from the ten billion doses produced in 2021, the target was to reach 40% of the global population. However, the report by Amnesty found that only 4% of the global population in poverty countries were fully vaccinated. Senior Director Rajat Khosla addressed the issue of hoarding vaccines, calling it “callous” and that pharmaceutical company “play a pivotal role in this unfolding human rights catastrophe.”

In response, the report highlighted areas to improve, including sharing the intellectual property and technology so that countries can produce the vaccinations themselves and increase fair access. This would be achieved by disclosing the terms and conditions and sharing non-exclusive licenses.