Shouldn’t COVID-19 Vaccine Manufacturers Share Their Technologies With the World?

Now is their best opportunity to show market capitalism is not predatory

The COVID-19 pandemic’s dangerous journey across the world for the past two years has crippled national economies, destroyed livelihoods and claimed millions of lives.

The pandemic has shown no signs of going away anytime soon by mutating into new variants like the Omicron.

Scientists developed vaccines in record time thanks to accumulated research-based knowledge.

Companies like Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson and AstraZeneca manufactured the vaccines to meet the world’s demand.

Vaccine inequality

According to ourworldindata.org, around 60% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, only 9.5% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.

Pharmaceutical companies enjoy a monopoly over the marketing of new drugs, including vaccines, developed by them. They hold patents protected by the World Trade Organization’s TRIPS ( Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights) regime.

The survival of the fittest rule has been the norm for COIVD-19 vaccines supply and distribution.

As early as October 2020, India and South Africa had requested that the WTO TRIPS Council consider a temporary waiver on patenting all medical products needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed nations like the US opposed this proposal.

Are vaccines saleable products or common public good?

One thought extraordinary situations like a pandemic demanded exceptional solutions. Not so for the vaccine manufacturers and their supporting nations for whom patents are non-negotiable rights.

The conventional argument is patents are a must to enable pharma companies to invest in the research and development of new drugs and recover their costs with reasonable profits.

It is debatable whether the typical pro-patent arguments are valid entirely. A lot of public money has funded vaccine research and development. Vaccine manufacturers have raked in windfall profits in the past two years.

Possible solutions to ensure equity of vaccine access

• The TRIPS regime provides for compulsory licensing of drugs in the case of medical emergencies. However, nations like India, which have vaccine manufacturing capacities, have shied away from exercising this provision to avoid legal challenges from patent-holders.
• The vaccine manufacturers can surrender their patents voluntarily for the sake of humanity because they have already raked in huge profits.
• The vaccine producers can licence other companies by transferring the technologies to manufacture the vaccines at a fair price.
• The companies can voluntarily direct a part of their production to the international vaccine alliance called COVAX co-led by the WHO, the GAVI vaccines alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and UNICEF.
• The WTO can accede to the request of India and South Africa and exempt the manufacture and distribution of vaccines and related products from the TRIPS regime.

Final thoughts

Profit is a legitimate business goal, although its acceptable limits remain undefined. The inequitable access to vaccines exposed huge populations in developing countries to the devastating pandemic.

The vaccine manufacturers and developed nations like the US should look beyond conventional economic theories about profits, incentives and competition because the world faces a great crisis.

The vaccine manufacturers have an excellent opportunity to show they care for people and focus on profit. They must shed their rigid stand and ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines by thinking and acting boldly and imaginatively.

The pandemic is the best opportunity to redeem market capitalism’s unflattering image as a heartless and predatory ideology.

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