Ending Vaccine Apartheid

An unpatented COVID vaccine has been developed

It’s beyond me why intellectual property considerations continue to trip up wider manufacture and distribution of COVID vaccines. With untold numbers ill (and dead), it seems axiomatic that worldwide waivers to patent protection of all COVID medicines should be an absolute no-brainer.

Not so.

The tripping up to which I refer stems from a rather ironic acronym: the TRIPS (“Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights”) agreement administered by the World Trade Organization. (1)

Procedural delays are attributed to the European Union and the United States. (2) Pressure from the pharmaceutical industry is said to be formidable. (2)

Meanwhile, the lesser-advantaged peoples of the world wait anxiously – and suffer terribly.

So – are there any workarounds?

Seemingly, yes.

Here’s one: “South African scientists have created a close replica of Moderna's mRNA-based coronavirus vaccine without any assistance from the U.S. pharmaceutical giant, a development that could have massive implications for the fight against global vaccine apartheid.” (3)

And how about this? Scientists in Texas have developed a patent-free COVID vaccine. “The vaccine formula can be licensed by a vaccine producer in any low- or middle-income nation, which would then take ownership of it, produce it, name it and work with the government to get it to the people…“ (4)

Now – think in particular about the implications of the Texas result. A vaccine is, in effect, poised to go open source.

To heck, then, with the nuances and vagaries of medical intellectual property. It’s possible for vaccines – and, for that matter, pharmaceuticals in general – to be developed successfully in the public domain.

They will go directly to the entire world. And they’ll not get tripped up in procedural games of footsie, or by exotic (and nearly incoherent) protocols, or by the enormous pressures exerted by Big Pharma.

Those are prospects that I really like.

Sources:

(1) https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_e.htm

(2) https://www.newzimbabwe.com/us-noncommittal-on-vaccine-patents-waiver/

(3) https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/02/04/major-breakthrough-south-african-scientists-replicate-moderna-vaccine

(4) https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/10/corbevax-texas-coronavirus-vaccine/

#COVID

#coronavirus

#vaccine

#WorldTradeOrganization

#WTO

#TRIPS