May 6, 2021 - 2:03pm
The USA has said that pharma companies should be required to waive intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines. That is: any firm that wanted to produce, say, the Pfizer vaccine would now be able to do so. The idea is that it would free up more manufacturers and so increase vaccine supply.
Obviously everyone wants that; there really is a terrible disparity between the rich world and the developing one. But I think that 1) it probably won’t do much good, if any, 2) it reduces the incentives for pharma companies to behave well in the next pandemic, and 3) it’s both miserly and attention-seeking on the part of national governments.
Let’s take them in order. First, here’s why it probably won’t do much good.
The thing that is slowing down vaccine production is not that there are hundreds of manufacturers champing at the bit to get started, but who are prevented from doing so by IP laws. Certainly with the mRNA vaccines, the problem is a shortage of materials and a shortage of expertise.
The Oxford vaccine researcher Sandy Douglas points out that Moderna said back in October that they wouldn’t enforce patents, but no one else is making the Moderna vaccine yet. Derek Lowe, a drug discovery chemist, agrees: this isn’t the bottleneck. The immunologist Andrew Croxford describes an IP waiver as the “thoughts and prayers” of vaccine supply. A development economist I spoke to pointed out that that opening up IP could even make things worse — if there’s a shortage of raw materials and suddenly there are more producers competing for them.
That’s not to say that there aren’t other cases where IP is a problem, and where it’s enforced in weird ways! There are lots of weird cases where drugs that should be generic and cheap are expensive and protected, especially in the US. But in the case of Covid vaccines, it’s not the problem at hand.
Second, it reduces incentives for pharma companies to do the right thing next time. As I wrote a few months ago, there’s a real tension between making drugs cheaply available and incentivising pharma companies to develop new ones. The market, on its own, fails in many situations to relieve that tension.
There are clever ways around it which I discuss in the piece. But when the next pandemic comes around, we would like the pharmaceutical industry to do what it did this time — drop everything and work like hell to make vaccines. Maybe waiving IP rights will have no impact on their willingness to do that next time, but if there’s even a small chance that it will, it seems a bad bet. The pandemic is costing trillions of dollars; a few billion in profits to pharma companies is completely irrelevant.
Third, why are we being so cheap? As I just said: the pandemic is costing trillions of dollars. The Nobel-prize-winning economist Michael Kremer estimates that shortening its span by one month would save $500 billion. If the problem is that there are not enough places manufacturing the vaccines, then why not simply spend hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for more? The biotech company GreenLight suggests building seven mRNA factories around the world, in developing nations, so that the entire global population is within a few days’ travel of one. The Center for Global Development suggests that the Biden administration should lead a global effort to invest in vaccine supply.
Saying you’ll waive IP rights is cheap in the worst sense of the word. It gets headlines and approving tweets but it won’t do much good and might do lots of harm. Instead: spend the money. Build factories. Give hundreds of billions of dollars of rich western taxpayers’ money to Covax. Stop trying to push the risk, cost and blame onto the pharma industry.
Of course, there are some long-term advantages if you open up IP. Other companies can build on your expertise and come up with new scientific breakthroughs: mRNA vaccines for other diseases, perhaps. Kremer, in a 1998 paper, suggested that governments should buy out pharma companies’ patents, at a fair price, and put them in the public domain. Then maybe, next time, there will be the global expertise required for thousands of small mRNA factories to pop up in Botswana and Bangladesh.
But right now, Western governments need to invest in factories. They need to invest in raw materials. They need to invest in staff and expertise. They need to spend money and get the vaccines to the developing world. This is a sideshow.
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SubscribeIt’s just a pity that it has to go so far before people start to wake up and realise that such patently bad ideas will have consequences.
It is a bit like alcohol. A few Democratic ideas make the public feel fuzzy and warm and benevolent but too much extreme Democratic ideas makes for a non-functioning addict that upsets all their old friends and only hitting rock-bottom sets the road back to sense and sobriety. Unfortunately, like alcoholics the answer is to avoid alcohol altogether and avoid voting Democrat however much it just appears a nice sociable and friendly activity.
Yes, but can we agree that it is more like a cheap pint of Carlsberg brewed under license, rather than like one of my lovely Westmalle Tripels?
Winsome Sears is the best political figure of 2022, an absolutely amazing speaker and persona. Born in Jamaica, come to USA in the 1960s as a young child, worked hard at school, became a US Marine. She talks of being a leader, how leaders must have the trust of their troops so they fallow, and that means integrity. A US Marine – a fantastic quality for a politician, real world lessons, and now Lieutenant Governor of Virgina with Youngkin as Governor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-YUYX33VsM
If you do not know her, she is the absolute antithesis of the Squad – she gives me great hope when ever I see her. USA is not done yet.
Interesting. I will watch out for her
yes yes yes – superb! what a role model!
Thank you, what a lady!
Seriously. People act like this is some kind of victory – but how did these people get elected in the first place? Their platforms and rhetoric are literally deranged. Who voted for them. What were they thinking. I would love to see an interview with a middle class Democratic voter where they honestly explain how they thought voting for these people was a good idea.
Short answer: tribal voting. It was bad in my home area when I was young, but faded in time. Eventually the party that felt it owned everyone’s votes angered the voters to the point it ceased to be able to win elections at all. I doubt this vote in SF was a turn of the tide, but it at least showed the people there can vote non-tribally when they actually pay attention to the issues. Although it should also be said, SF genuinely is the furthest left of anyplace in the US. So this won’t change its overall political makeup, but the voters are showing they have limits on what they will tolerate.
San Francisco is 6% Republican. That number is shocking. I moved out of S.F. 25 years ago, and now the city seems to be turning into a case study in disintegration and decay.
It’s impossible to convince most Democrats, especially older ones, that the party they are voting for is not the same one that it was 20 years ago (that’s what happened to me before I saw the light during the pandemic). They are trapped in a cult and refuse to come out. I’m on the verge of losing a friend of almost 40 years, who has become overtly hostile to any suggestion from me that goes against her core progressive beliefs.
Two brief examples: a link to Christopher Rufo explaining CRT was met with “I see he’s been on Tucker Carlson but not MSNBC” and a comment that CRT is “just trying to teach accurate history.” Within the last week, a suggestion to look at Viva Frei’s livestream of the truckers in Ottawa was met with derision regarding Frei’s being a lawyer (inherently suspicious character, apparently), and skepticism about why she should “trust some stranger on the Internet.” This statement was so irrational that I had no response. We can’t discuss politics at all at this point, and she is not coming out of the cult. To her consternation, her grandson just went through four years of college and came out a libertarian, which I think is a miracle.
“wrote a long Twitter thread accusing Asian Americans of using “white supremacist thinking to assimilate and ‘get ahead’,” and comparing them to a “house n****r”
Do these people actually believe what they write; or are they merely grandstanding for a social media gallery?
I think it’s a bit of both. In many ways, the more inflamatory the statements, the better they work, though this applies only to COWs (Citizens of Wakanda). The left echo chamber supports them no matter what.
Any idea how hard it is to get a recall on the ballot? VERY hard. This is a small step, but let’s see who the mayor appoints….
it would be a mistake to see the San Francisco vote as an isolated.
I am sorry but we have been hearing this stuff for the last 40 years and the march of the left seems to continue relentlessly, infiltrating and the corrupting our institutions and public services all at the public expense.
Nothing is going to change until there is a complete clear out .
“To be fair, the recalled board members were defeated not just for extreme politics, but for their reluctance to open schools during the pandemic.”
The reluctance to open schools IS extreme politics! Have you not been paying attention? Yes, there are other forms of extreme politics, but this is a huge one.
There is not much to this article, keeping in mind that the recall means that the extreme left nutter Mayor of SF will appoint their replacements. Do you think there will be any significant change? Certainly the people recalled are vile, disgusting, stupid people, but will their replacements be significantly better? I doubt it.
This article is far too optimistic. These are perhaps victories in some small skirmishes, but the institutional bureaucracy, the Deep State (yes, it’s a real thing) still exists, is thriving, and can’t be recalled. The author might have noted that the NEA, a nationwide union for teachers (and against students) has about 3mm members, and has taken the position that schools can only open when they are “safe.”
And what about Rick Caruso. I read this a few times, but how is LA developer Rick Caruso registering as a Democrat a big deal? I just don’t get it, and the article utterly failed to explain the significance. Because he wants to win? Because it’s virtually impossible for Republicans to win? How is that news? How does that relate to the story?
If the author’s prediction for the improvement of America’s great cities is to come true–no sure thing– it will take decades or generations. The damage is far too deep, and control is held by institutions–such as teachers unions, police unions, corrections officers (prison guards) that have too much skin in the game and are far too powerful. Because government unions are seen as largely COW (Citizens of Wakanda) organizations, they are untouchable lest the race card be played.
And sadly, many teachers, especially in California where liability insurance is as expensive as it is necessary, are captives of their unions. The unions pick up the liability insurance, so they function as a protection racket. Having been one, I’d say many,many teachers would much rather just teach their subjects, and deconstruct “Social Studies”, a bogus cross-curricular subject to begin with. I can’t say if the laboring unions (SEIU etc.) are the same. I suspect they use their protection of illegals as a leverage. Unions no longer seem to function as delegates of their workers, they have become parasitic and their mission has crept to prioritize their own administrative self-interest. (Come to think of it, this could describe the trajectory of some Western “democracies” I could name …)
Thanks, Liz. You should write an article about this, I’d be interested in hearing more about the corruption of the teachers’ unions .
BTW The Tablet recently ran a long article on how large-scale illegal immigration helps employers to keep the workforce under control
It’s rather funny that we have to rely on the hatred for Asians of white ‘progressives’ and activist left blacks to stop woke policies. They obsess about anti racism and then find ‘acceptably woke’ excuses to be racist against Asians.
It may be racially stereotypical to say it – but like the Jews, I’m thankful that many Asians work so hard to integrate culturally (whilst maintaining valued aspects of their cultures) and be successful.
Which is why the U.K. will benefit from immigrants from Hong Kong.
This is good news but my sense is the triumphalist tone of the article is premature. It’s only when woke policies touch the lives of otherwise woke middle class urbanites that they rebel. Once the kids are safely back in school and teachers tone down the race rhetoric that negatively affects any minority, notably asians, we might go back to progressive politics as usual. Of course it will still be ok to target whites.
The real test will be the midterms. If covid is less of a threat, kids are returning to school and life is more or less normal, the Democrats might yet do well. Let’s hope a majority of people have fully internalized the long-term danger of the Democrats’ agenda.
A realist is a lefty who’s been mugged! Messing with one’s children’s education gets real, fast. (Never forget Mrs. Thatcher’s start as Minister of Education) As for what I, a Bay Area native by birth, regard as the tipping point, the planned degradation of Lowell High — though the Board did not stint in proposed changes offensive in part to all — the shining summit of many Asian-American aspirations — a Spanish dicho says it best: :Find out whose dog it is, before you beat it.” Ambitious, taxpaying Asian parents who are made to feel disenfranchised, especially in the matter of their progeny, were the wrong sleeping tiger to poke.
I am going to steal that expression – cultural appropriation be damned!
And again: “most insanely progressive”
What does progressive mean??
Usually people from the extreme left who believe that revolution must be a continuous process. Often inventing enemy (Recidivists/ Backsliders?) among their own collegues and supporters..
It’s a term socialists have been using since the late 1800s. Then as now, the ones who identify with that term are more focused on the cultural aspects of socialism, but that doesn’t imply a rejection of the economic aspect. They just believe you change the culture first to prepare it for the economic platform of socialism. The reason they worry me so much is I think they grasped the better solution than what the socialists across most of Europe were thinking at the time– though it should also be noted a lot of the current progressive platform– the so- called woke ideology– was actually brought over by Weimar academics in the 1920s following progressivism’s collapse after the Wilson administration and his authoritarianism.