The COVID-19 pandemic is currently spreading at unprecedented rates around the world. In order to tackle it we need three things: diagnostics for tracking the virus, medications for treating the virus, and a vaccine for preventing the virus. Scientists, researchers and other experts all around the world are working around the clock to make this vaccine a reality for people. There is a roadblock that they often find standing in their way, a web of intellectual property monopolies.
Pharmaceutical companies privatize and lock up the control over the medications and vaccines preventing the production of generic versions. This monopoly has limited access to medicines and vaccines vital for individuals’ survival, weakened public health, increased the profits of major pharmaceutical companies, and, in the case of COVID-19, prolonged the pandemic. Intellectual monopolies on technology used for testing for the virus has resulted in a very slow roll out of more testing kits from new producers. 3M’s patents for respirators and N95 has resulted in an increased number of hurdles new producers must overcome in order to manufacture medical grade face masks on a large scale. Patents on the most promising treatments threaten the affordability and supply of this potentially life saving medication. In response to this, the global scientific community has come together to share knowledge of potential treatments, coordinate clinical trials and develop models committing to being transparent about the process and subsequent findings. This has allowed for some of these monopolies of knowledge to be dismantled and has propelled us in the right direction.
The question is, once a vaccine is discovered, will this same willingness to share it in order to save lives be present? Or will it be trumped by pharmaceutical companies’ and individuals’ greed or desire to maximize profits?
What would happen if a single company does have a complete monopoly over the vaccine, setting the price allowing it to determine the vaccine’s distribution? What does that mean for the rest of us? Well, at present, various countries have varying degrees of access to resources to purchase potential vaccines from the supplier, with disproportionate buying power being in the hands of rich nations such as the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, etc. This would mean that many middle and low income countries may be out of luck once the vaccine has been discovered, because they will not have the same degree of access.
There have already been efforts made in order to circumvent this potential monopoly over the vaccine. India and South Africa, formally petitioned the World Trade Organization to suspend the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights for all members. The African Union asked the World Health Organization to ask that all countries “make use of legal measures... to ensure that monopolies do not stand in the way of access.” The World Health Organization is working to organize a global system for treatment allocation with equity as its driving force. These measures help take down barriers that hinder access to affordable medical products. They allow for maximized production by multiple manufacturers, meaning that global demand can be more easily fulfilled at an affordable price.
This is all to say that, although it is still a possibility that the COVID-19 vaccine will be monopolized by a pharmaceutical company, governments and organizations around the world are actively taking measures to prevent it.
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