Waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines would not help alleviate the worldwide supply crisis, according to the co-founder of a biotech business located in Massachusetts. According to Jake Becraft, CEO and co-founder of Strand Therapeutics, the demand for patent exemptions is “political theatre” and does not naturally allow others to manufacture safe and effective vaccines, which are already tough to develop. His company does not make Covid-19 vaccines, but it is working on a platform to develop programmable messenger RNA drugs that can activate the body’s own immune response to fight diseases. “We need to commit to what we’re already manufacturing and expand it up as much as we can around the world,” Becraft said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday.
Vaccine scarcity
Due to a global scarcity of Covid-19 vaccinations, several nations are racing for supplies to begin their immunisation campaigns. In reality, India, the world’s greatest producer of vaccines, is also experiencing a local shortage in the midst of a deadly second wave. Health professionals, rights groups, and international medical organisations have claimed that there is an urgent need to waive intellectual property rights in order to resolve the worldwide vaccine deficit and prevent exacerbating the health catastrophe. It comes as many nations, particularly in Asia, are dealing with fresh waves of illnesses caused by altered Covid versions.
Vaccine manufacturers, on the other hand, believe that such a move would disrupt the flow of raw materials and might lead to decreased expenditures in health research from smaller biotech firms. Last year, India and South Africa presented a joint proposal to the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines. The Trips waiver — or Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights — idea was stymied by high-income nations like as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Japan, Norway, Canada, and the European Union, among others. France, for example, reasoned that increasing vaccine exports by vaccine-producing countries is the greatest way to improve global immunisation. While the US initially opposed the plan, the Biden administration stated last month that it favours waivers of intellectual property rights for Covid-19.
Increasing the supply chain’s efficiency
Becraft stated that the vaccinations must be manufactured in highly regulated, high-tech facilities, and that the necessary technology does not exist globally. This implies that even with a patent waiver, certain countries will lack the know-how to manufacture their own vaccinations. Instead, Becraft advocated that pharmaceutical businesses such as Moderna, Pfizer, and BioNTech be rewarded for transferring the technology to production facilities across the world. “If we want safe and effective vaccinations, we need to incentivise these firms to scale their manufacturing capacity globally,” he added. “We need to go to Moderna and BioNTech and ask them, ‘What would it take for you to transfer your technology to these third world countries?’” Becraft explained.
The head of the US-India Business Council, Nisha Biswal, concurred that a patent waiver will not resolve the issue of increasing vaccine supply to the rest of the globe. She told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Monday that even with a patent waiver, it would take months or years until the technology, raw materials, and production capacity are up to the quality necessary for countries to be able to create their own vaccines.
Instead, the emphasis should be on assisting nations that are currently manufacturing vaccines to increase their output. “Many of these (vaccine) manufacturers are already in discussions with India, with Indian firms, about how they may try to manufacture some of them in India,” Biswal added. Strand Therapeutics’ Becraft noted that, in the long run, global governments must offer more money and infrastructural assistance for pharmaceutical businesses to construct production facilities throughout the world. BioNTech announced last week that it will establish a manufacturing facility in Singapore to develop its mRNA-based vaccines.
