The COVID-19 pandemic has shone an unflattering light on the global public health system. In particular, the medical supply chain and trade in medicines is being controlled by a few high income countries, in part because they actually "own" the medicines, including vaccines they are exporting. Any person interested in the global public health "ecosystem," needs to know about how medical products get, or do not get, from one country to the other and how low and middle-income countries are at a disadvantage. The pandemic has illuminated the role and importance of intellectual property rules. Public health activists often show outright opposition to these rules and 'big pharma' often has an unthinking acceptance that change will destroy biomedical innovation and lead to poorer health outcomes. This course will explore both side of this complex and ambiguous relationship between global trade, intellectual property and its impact on public health.