Vaccine Pharmas Rebuff Calls To Drop Exclusive Patents

The Washington Post reports:

Abdul Muktadir, the chief executive of Bangladeshi pharmaceutical maker Incepta, has emailed executives of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax offering his company’s help. He said he has enough capacity to fill vials for 600 million to 800 million doses of coronavirus vaccine a year to distribute throughout Asia.

He never heard back from any of them. The lack of interest has left Muktadir worried about prolonged coronavirus exposure for millions of citizens of Bangladesh and other low-income nations throughout Asia and Africa who are at the back of the global queue for shots.

But drug companies have rebuffed entreaties to face the emergency by sharing their proprietary technology. They cite the rapid development of new vaccines as evidence that the drug industry’s traditional business model, based on exclusive patents and know-how, is working.

Read the full article.

“Of the potential 10 billion to 14 billion vaccine doses the industry hopes to produce in 2021 — a range that relies on optimistic projections — more than two-thirds have been claimed by wealthy and middle-income countries” https://t.co/It1bnXpj9V

— Gideon Resnick (@GideonResnick) March 21, 2021