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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.More support easing vaccine patent rules, but hurdles remain
By JAMEY KEATEN GENEVA©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
21 Comments
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1glenn
Allowing countries to make the vaccines is well-intentioned, but most countries are not able to set up the infrastructure needed to produce them, at least for the foreseeable future. Perhaps a few countries will be able to take advantage of the opportunity, but for most people on Earth, it would be best if the countries with the ability to make the vaccines decided to make enough for the entire world population.
n1k1
Japan and China are struggling academically but they can produce a lot and help solve this problem before this virus mutates into something scarier.
n1k1
EU , please remove the patent protections ! Not doing so is a bit evil. The whole world is suffering.
ReynardFox
After he developed the polio vaccine - one of the medical wonders of the 20th century - Jonas Salk deliberately chose not to patent it. His idea would have made him one of the richest men in the world, but he chose not to patent it deliberately so that any company anywhere in the world could freely produce his vaccine. He gave up potentially become a billionaire so that people could have easy and cheap access to his drug.
Today, he’d be called a socialist.
Numan
We already know that Russia's Sputnik doesn't really work because Russian officials have been caught getting vaccinated with other suppliers secretly. Also, Russia just signed a deal to have China produce their vaccine. It is really easy to use the Chinese version and call it Sputnik.
Basically, China will steal it then use it as a bargaining chip to leverage third-world countries in Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe because those other countries like Russia do not have the capacity or know-how to produce it, properly!
As a company like Pfizer or Moderna, I would be angry because their stocks will tank if their hard work is easily shared with every trustyworthy and nontrustworthy company and country under the sun. Shareholders will be p'))&d, too!
virusrex
Waiving patent rules is obviously more a bargain chip than a real solution, companies require months over months of optimizing processes just to be able to replicate the manufacture of a single drug or vaccine, and that is with the full cooperation of the original developer, so even if everything was made free to use today no new vaccines would be likely produced this year (at least not with the required quality).
Still, it is a good thing to put pressure on the companies, one thing is to recover an investment and even make a profit with a good health intervention that will save lives (people deserve to be rewarded for doing things properly the same as they would deserve punishment for doing them badly) but this is a time of need and it is not ethical to accumulate profits while the rest of the world is having to suffer.
Hopefully a good balance will be reach and both parts (rich countries and vaccine companies) will cooperate to solve the current crisis. Maybe by the next pandemic a better system will be put in order to have good vaccines at affordable prices and huge quantities as fast as this time.
ian
Stop hoarding and keeping the vaccines to yourselves would be a good start.
Numan
@iraira
OK........
We know why, don't we? Ask Farmboy!
Numan
@Lamilly
LOL! Evidence please!
Numan
@Lamilly
LOL!
Where is your evidence, please?
virusrex
That is what I mean with a better system, production was very good, but predictable international problems made chaotic the distribution and third world countries were mostly left out of the picture.
A real international mechanism, decided beforehand to pool funds to support development and smooth out an equitable distribution system is extremely desirable for the (hopefully far away) next pandemic.
Goodlucktoyou
Hasn’t happened yet and “they” have another card up their sleeves. Vaccines need boosters and don’t work for new variants. Basically they can sacrifice giving away the old one, knowing they can fleece with the next one.
I remember everyone had Software v1, then it didn’t work on programs so they had to buy Software V2....
ian
If you want to waive your patents,just waive it. Dont ask others for approval
iraira
Compared with a month ago, Pfizer stock is up about 3 points to about 39 and Moderna is up about 29 points to about 160.
jiji Xx
wonder what took the Biden and Macron so long et al so long. must've been chomping at the bit, waiting for the go-ahead from those "closed-door talks".
also wonder why Pfizer and BioNTech didn't donate vaccines to India, say, or Brazil, instead of offering support to those among the fittest and most privileged people on the planet....
all the usual suspects using The Plague for political and/or financial advantage.... business as usual.