Commentary
There are ways to do well by doing good, and successful vaccine development is one of them. COVID-19 vaccines are now protecting the world from death and disease. But in the next pandemic—due to the erosion of intellectual property protections for vaccine science on a global level—we may not be so lucky.
On June 17, the Biden administration has signed onto a World Trade Organization initiative, to the benefit of China and led by India and South Africa, to wipe out intellectual property (IP) protections for the pharmaceutical companies that developed the winning mRNA vaccines.
The agreement grants developing countries, among which China wrongly places itself, rights to manufacture COVID vaccines “without the consent of the right holder.”…