Reconfiguring scientific competition: patent consolidation and the access politics of the HPV vaccine

Abstract The invention of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine occurred at a moment when academic life science research was becoming increasingly reoriented toward market-driven goals. This transformation, shaped by policy shifts promoting the commercialisation of academic research, altered traditional forms of scientific competition. Economic value came to structure not only research agendas but also the institutional logic of academic practice. Intellectual property rights played a key role in materialising this shift, with powerful market actors influencing the outcomes of scientific contests to secure monopolistic control. The case of the HPV vaccine illustrates how upstream innovation processes, especially decisions about ownership, licensing, and legal structuring, determine downstream outcomes such as pricing and access. This challenges prevailing approaches in public health that treat access inequalities as isolated or downstream issues, instead highlighting how the architecture of biomedical innovation itself shapes the terms of inclusion and exclusion in global health.