Covid vaccine nationalism shows us that our intellectual property system has been broken
This is an article in the third issue of New Economics Magazine.You can read the full question Here
In recent months, talk about ‘Vaccine nationalism”—wealthy governments are striving to ensure that vaccine supplies are traded, while many poorer countries are actually deprived of fair access—has grown. In fact, although the vaccine itself is being developed at an incredible rate, But their uneven distribution around the world highlights the fundamental flaws in the way drugs are owned and distributed.
As we celebrated vaccination in the UK in January, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said: caveat that “The world is on the verge of catastrophic moral failure-and the cost of this failure will be the lives and livelihoods of the world’s poorest countries. “By mid-January, although it’s over 39m At least 49 high-income countries have been vaccinated, while a country with the lowest income has only received 25 doses. In the words of Dr. Tedros: “Not 25 million; not 25,000; only 25 years old. “By April, although a quarter of people in wealthy countries were vaccinated, as long as In low-income countries, 1 in 500 people have received the injection.
How did this happen? Why are so many countries unable to obtain sufficient Covid-19 vaccine supplies? In order to understand the core of one of the important aspects, we must delve into the ownership of the vaccine itself. Who gets their own vaccines is governed by intellectual property (IP), which is a set of rights and protections created around ideas.
Intellectual property affects the way ideas and inventions are used, covering everything from patents and copyrights to trademarks.As far as vaccines are concerned, even though their development is usually Partially funded Through public research and development (R&D) funding, ‘“Proprietary technology” is usually exclusively owned by pharmaceutical companies. The pandemic shows how inadequate the current system is.
Intellectual property aims to protect the ownership of knowledge and creativity to encourage innovation. But today’s methods often fuel the power and wealth of multinational companies-and pharmaceutical giants are no exception. Protecting the intellectual property rights of the Covid vaccine will only weaken the collective ability to quickly manage the vaccine for all, thereby prolonging the global pandemic.
Some people try to solve this problem by creating a global patent pool. Pharmaceutical companies will give up their exclusive rights to vaccine patents so that other countries have the ability to purchase or manufacture vaccine versions.This will allow all governments to roll out more quickly and help promote Production capacity.For example, last year, the WHO launched a initiative Sharing intellectual property and scientific data to help fight the pandemic: Covid-19 technology access pool. Countries that support it include Argentina, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Ecuador and Panama.especially absent It is the influential voice of the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Germany.Pharmaceutical giants AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson also joined in condemn The concept of intellectual property pools.
Intellectual property rights are the hallmark of today’s global trading system. ‘TRIPS’, an international legal framework, sets the minimum requirements for intellectual property rules. This usually enables patent-holding pharmaceutical companies to oversee the production and licensing of drugs for decades.India and South Africa initially suggested In October, the World Trade Organization was granted an intellectual property exemption for the Covid vaccine, and the idea has since attracted attention from other countries. In May, the Biden administration stand by Narrow exemption for intellectual property rights related to the Covid-19 vaccine.Although there is growing interest in temporary IP exemptions within the EU, members of the European Parliament however Reach a consensus. Although global activists continue to make progress, there is still a long way to go before any strong exemption measures are taken.
So far, many low- and middle-income countries have not been able to fully obtain important tools to fight the pandemic because they have not been able to quickly support the sharing of vaccine intellectual property rights.There have been some notable developments, the most notable being a project called Kovacs, The United Kingdom is a member. Covax’s goal is to provide 2 billion doses of vaccine globally by the end of 2021. But this is not enough to make the global vaccine launch fast and fair.As the World Health Organization Say: “Even if they speak the language of fair access, some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral transactions, bypass Covax, push up prices and try to get ahead. “
At a time when we urgently need cooperation and transparency, the government invested a large amount of public funds into a private, monopoly-based system.Oxfam caveat In December, nine out of ten people in poor countries will miss the Covid-19 vaccine in 2021. Sports Organization Global Just Now call All pharmaceutical companies and research institutions dedicated to the development of vaccines “Share the science, technical knowledge and intellectual property behind its vaccines in order to produce sufficient safe and effective doses. “
Covid-19 highlights the apparent imbalance in design in our current IP approach. In addition to the urgent need to ensure safe and effective vaccines for all, we must also reassess our broader approach to intellectual property. This is a system that can benefit companies disproportionately, and generally neither distributes products and services fairly nor maximizes innovation.We need to rebalance power and move from an exclusive ownership system to our approach to handling important intellectual property in principle Equal access and public ownership.
Intellectual property is an important part of any economic system, but if we want an incredible development like a new vaccine to protect us all around the world, we need to transform our approach to intellectual property to ensure that it meets our needs demand. This is a global crisis, and we need a global response. Sharing the intellectual property rights of Covid vaccines will help ensure fairer global access to vaccines and accelerate our collective ability to respond to the pandemic.
Miriam Brett is director of research and advocacy Common wealth, A think tank dedicated to democracy and sustainable economic ownership strategies.
Picture: iStock
