Vaccine patent waiver could be the way out

[Tealightsandd]

www.france24.com/en/europe/20210416-could-waived-covid-19-patents-save-the-world

I wondered about this a while back.

The biggest issue with vaccines is supply. Raw material shortage is another problem but increasing manufacturing capacity including for poorer countries could really help.

The WHO wanted a patent waiver. The drugs companies won't like it but the world can't afford for this to continue for another few years.

Temporary waiver as a way out, or too problematic?

That's interesting Rafals So it could be up to Biden? On a separate note, I wonder if he'll donate America's unwanted AZ stock to other countries?

So it seems the WHO was being unrealistic when they called for patent waiver.

I hope other countries will have better access to vaccines soon. I guess through schemes like Covax. Worrying about the raw material shortage though. Temporary only I hope?

How effective can our vaccination programme possibly be if 125 countries haven't been able to vaccinate a single one of their citizens and covid is spreading throughout most of the world, throwing up new and concerning variants all the time?

If any countries lack vaccine manufacturing expertise then send expertise with the recipe.

I'm pretty sure that's what China and Russia will be doing.

"send expertise with the recipe"
Vaccines aren't like a spaghetti bolognese where adding extra tomatoes, letting a toddler touch all the veg, or leaving it on low heat for longer doesn't matter. Where are the experts going to come from without stopping the other manufacture when they are already stretched with other facilities? Where are the raw materials coming from when they aren't enough for existing facilities? It really does help to read other people's comments if it isn't your area of expertise.

And no, both China and Russia are not sending experts and "the recipe", they are sending vials of doses made only in their respective countries.

“Inventing” the vaccine (à la Oxford) is only a small part of the puzzle. Manufacturing at scale is at least as important and frankly more challenging. I don’t think there should be a patent waiver; patent holders can still licence their vaccine for others to manufacture.

AZ have already offered their vaccine at cost; I would like to think that others would minimise profit making but after the way AZ has been treated I can’t blame them for making every penny they can. If first world governments are concerned about developing countries’ vaccination rates, then they need to pay up. You can bet China and Russia are happy to extend their soft power that way....

@MRex

"send expertise with the recipe" Vaccines aren't like a spaghetti bolognese where adding extra tomatoes, letting a toddler touch all the veg, or leaving it on low heat for longer doesn't matter. Where are the experts going to come from without stopping the other manufacture when they are already stretched with other facilities? Where are the raw materials coming from when they aren't enough for existing facilities? It really does help to read other people's comments if it isn't your area of expertise.

And no, both China and Russia are not sending experts and "the recipe", they are sending vials of doses made only in their respective countries.

Are you likening the people in the poorer countries of the world to...toddlers?

I'm likening anyone who isn't highly trained to a toddler, it isn't a common skill set and any random manufacturer can't just pick it up. Do you think companies the size and scale of Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson wouldn't be scaling up more if it was easy to just roll out? Just think about it, they each have struggled underdelivery and taking months expanding into each facility - why do you think that happened? What is the reason?

It's worth noting that a central tenet of the Az model was licencing regional hubs for manufacture at cost, with the sole intent of churning the stuff out cheaply, in quantity, where it is most needed. Hugely radical, in the world of pharmaceuticals.

The other manufactures have all gone for a small number of central factories, from which they would export to the world.

Now, given the grief that Az has got from every side in recent weeks, do you see many other companies deciding to follow their model?

@PrincessNutNuts

How effective can our vaccination programme possibly be if 125 countries haven't been able to vaccinate a single one of their citizens and covid is spreading throughout most of the world, throwing up new and concerning variants all the time?

If any countries lack vaccine manufacturing expertise then send expertise with the recipe.

I'm pretty sure that's what China and Russia will be doing.

That's what they are doing. Some is coming from Russia/China directly but they are also setting up manufacturers abroad AFAIK. Although I believe there are some doubts about the morality of bypassing COVAX for very poor countries.

I think it's legally complicated OP. But Moderna lost a court case on something they shared a patent with the US government for last year. So it does seem like the HHS who share the patent could waive it for other drug companies to use.

The problem is patent waivers are useless if the people manufacturing the vaccines don't share their expertise too. It is possible to do this, there's just a lack of willpower to do it.

If any countries lack vaccine manufacturing expertise then send expertise with the recipe.

One of the basic properties of expertise is that not many people have it. So you expect that there will be sufficient experts in manufacture of a vaccine which didn’t even exist a year ago to be sent out worldwide? As I’ve said upthread, they’ve been trying to sort out issues at the Halix plant for months.

And nice try attempting to use the “toddler” remark to deflect from your inability to recognise the complexity of the situation.

It's not a patent waiver that is needed, it's agreements that the drugs will be supplied on a no-profit basis.

This.

And we've seen how the reaction to AZ going non-profit has gone with the rest of the world. One would almost think that there were people out there for whom AZ failing would be a good thing.

Interestingly it looks like Biden is/was considering a temporary waiver.

www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/covid-vaccine-updates-white-house-mulls-lifting-intellectual-property-shield.html

Maybe it's a bad idea for the reasons given here. I hope, at least, we manage to speed up getting vaccines to the rest of the world in some way.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/18/patent-waiver-covid-vaccines-uk-variants

Like the song says:

🎶
There comes a time
When we heed a certain call
When the world
must come together as one
🎶

🎶
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
🎶

m.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjkUyX0rVw

This article is inaccurate. Several first World countries formed a group to ensure that the poorest countries get their vaccine share.
The trial im part of have offered it at cost to 3rd World countries.
Indian govt is corrupt and could do more but chose not to.

I don't agree in removing the patent though.

Covax is only going to immunize about 20% of the population of the countries it’s being sent to, according to a guardian article today. That is nowhere near what will be required for hers immunity and therefore it stands to reason that variants will develop with a chance that some will be more resistant to the vaccine. This would put all the countries who have had successful vaccine programmes at risk again- so something more than just covax needs to be done.

Yes, waiving a vaccine patent is not as simple as sharing a recipe for spaghetti bolognese, but there are places researching vaccines in many many countries which already have manufacturing facilities. Eg: Sanofi - was nearly there but not quite effective enough - should they have access to the patent they could potentially fill in the gaps in their formula and have a vaccine up and running relatively shortly.

There are already provisions in patent law for this type of situation. For example, in the U.K. there are provisions for Crown Use and compulsory licensing.
www.mewburn.com/news-insights/crown-use-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic