UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned any attempts to steal data on the COVID-19 vaccines' research, The Independent reported.

In an interview with BBC Radio, he spoke of the importance of protecting the intellectual property rights of scientists trying to develop a vaccine.

"Any espionage in relation to vaccines is to be condemned as we must condemn any policies that divide the world instead of conceiving the vaccine as a global public good, conceiving the vaccine as a people's vaccine, that must be accessible to everybody, everywhere.

"Just to develop a vaccine for each country's population and forget about the others is also something that is unacceptable.

"It is very important the intellectual property is protected, that nobody spies on anybody, but it is also important that a vaccine must be available to everybody, everywhere and affordable by everybody, everywhere."