This final installment of the article addresses what needs to be done after there has been rapid output of safe innovator vaccines (see Part I for scaling and Part II for safety). Typically, large vaccine companies own, or can partner with, vast distribution networks to get innovative vaccines distributed globally. Governmental and non-governmental organizations can help vaccines penetrate even farther. Patents are not the reason why these networks are currently being underutilized. In some cases where innovator companies have already increased vaccine supply, their efforts have been undermined by governments prioritizing their own countries' interests. The innovator companies' hands are tied by contracts or laws that prevent vaccine export. Governments can loosen these contract restrictions and laws, if they choose to do so. Ethics experts are debating the extent to which vaccine-rich countries should share and when. Licensing innovator vaccines further could help fill global distribution networks while diplomatic negotiations try to free up vaccines for countries most in need. As noted in prior parts of this article, licensing and technology transfer from innovator companies is faster and safer than overriding patents and waiting on "home brew" solutions to arrive.
The US government has stockpiled about 60 million of doses of the
The Canadian government said that it intends to take 1.9 million doses of vaccine from the WHO COVAX initiative for third world vaccine (as
When diplomatic negotiations do not provide fair vaccine access, patents become a scapegoat, and patent overrides become a desperate do-it-yourself solution. No country should have to resort to "home brew" out of frustration, when licensed, safe vaccine supply should be available. Diplomatic logjams must be resolved, and nationalism must give way to global cooperation. This includes both sharing the increased supply of innovator vaccines, as well as increasing the licensing out of innovator vaccine manufacturing knowledge to others that can manufacture. Equitable access to vaccines is essential before the world can move past COVID-19.
Footnotes
1 Some of this supply has been delayed by the Indian government preventing the
2 https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-still-counting-on-u-s-to-share-its-astrazeneca-stockpile-trudeau-says-1.5404331
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