Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are among those who have criticised the United Kingdom and other countries for failing to relax intellectual property rules in the case of the Covid-19 vaccine.

The couple is one of 130 people who have signed an open letter saying that “self-defeating nationalism, pharmaceutical monopolies, and inequality stand in our way” of ending the pandemic.

The “pandemic is not over,” according to the letter, and the approach to vaccine equity is “immoral, entirely self-defeating, and also an ethical, economic, and epidemiological failure.”

“The European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland continue to obstruct the lifting of intellectual property rules that would allow the redistribution and scale-up of Covid-19 vaccines, testing, and treatment manufacturing in the global south,” it says.

“Transferring largely publicly funded vaccine technology and know-how from pharmaceutical corporations would reduce production time to a matter of months.” Nonetheless, a few of these corporations continue to wield power over vaccine supply, distribution, and pricing – as well as the ability to decide who lives and who dies.

“It is the responsibility of world leaders, particularly rich nations, to change this situation and ensure that publicly funded vaccine technology and know-how is available to the global south.”

The letter, which comes on the second anniversary of the declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic, is also signed by actress Charlize Theron, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The couple has previously written an open letter to the CEOs of pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, urging them to increase their support for the UN-sponsored Covax vaccine equity programme.

During a mini-tour in New York City last September, the couple appeared at the Global Citizen Live event in Central Park.