What the COVID-19 pandemic revealed about intellectual property
Once one puts aside the above myths that inform IP policy debates, one can more clearly see a path forward to both innovation and global equity in pandemic times. Here, I outline three positive steps that governments can take.
The first is that — as extraordinary as the development and testing of Paxlovid was — the world might have had antivirals much sooner had we globally adopted a different approach to drug development, one that is proactive rather than reactive. It was a stroke of luck that Pfizer had the PF-00835231 ready for development. One should not count on that luck being repeated next time.
Rather than rely on IP — patents and trade secrets — to supply us with antivirals after a pandemic hits, together, governments, researchers and companies can develop drugs in advance. We already know the viruses that will likely cause the next pandemic and we understand which targets are the most promising: polymerases and proteases.
The third step is for governments to insist that companies follow existing policies that require broad licensing of IP to speed development. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Council adopted Recommendations on the Licensing of Genetic Inventions in 2006 that promote broad licensing of foundational genetic technologies, including those involved with the mRNA vaccines: the mRNA sequences, the lipid nanoparticles and related processes.
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