People’s vaccine

Our commercial media have followed the ups and downs of the vaccine roll out in the United States even as much less attention is devoted to the experience of poor nations. Pundits and TV anchors periodically acknowledge that lethal viruses don't respect borders but seldom discuss the political and economic implications of that truism. The recipes for vaccines also cross boundaries – in the highly privileged form of intellectual property. Too little attention has been paid to the role played by intellectual property in driving domestic and international inequities. The intellectual property regimes that have guided research and development are not only self-defeating in the short term they also slow the long term development of a science that will becomes even more crucial as pandemics becomes more common.

The World Health Organization (WHO) head points to this shocking statistic: “Between them, G7 nations have secured enough vaccines for every one of their citizens to be vaccinated three times over, while many poor countries are yet to receive a single dose.”

These nations are members of the World Trade Organization, which allows them to export to other member states without facing high tariff burdens. This is so called free trade. Nonetheless under most contemporary agreements it has been free trade with an increasingly important exception.

Members must accept the patent standards enacted by other member states. A patent on a drug, medical device, or vaccine is a domestic monopoly governing who can produce, market, and distribute that item. Trade agreements extend that monopoly privilege and responsibility to the whole membership. Monopolies and oligopolies are usually very profitable for those who own them. Generally they limit production and increase prices in excess of what a competitive market would do.

The pharmaceutical giants and their lobbies maintain they need monopoly profits in order to fund the cutting edge research that has given us these highly efficacious vaccines.

Recent experience suggests a very different path to the miracle vaccines. Arthur Alan of Kaiser Health News writes: “Basic research conducted… .at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Defense Department and federally funded academic laboratories has been the essential ingredient in the rapid development of vaccines in response to COVID-19. The government has poured an additional $10.5 billion into vaccine companies since the pandemic began to accelerate the delivery of their products.”

The Moderna vaccine emerged directly out of a partnership between Moderna and Graham's NIH laboratory.

Coronavirus vaccines are likely to be worth billions to the drug industry if they prove safe and effective. As many as 14 billion vaccines would be required to immunize everyone in the world against Covid-19. If, as many scientists anticipate, vaccine-produced immunity wanes, billions more doses could be sold as booster shots in years to come.” Those billions in excess profits are one reason the vaccines have yet to gain much of a foothold in poorer nations.

Excerpted: ‘Making the Covid Vaccine Less Accessible to Poorer Countries Is Dangerous for Everyone’

Commondreams.org