Pushing against the proposed Intellectual Property (IP) waiver for Covid vaccines, Pharma companies are saying that removing IP protections from Covid-19 vaccines or pressuring companies into technology sharing will not speed up production of the jabs. The companies claimed such a measure would even slow down the vaccine production.
Supporters of the measure to do away with IP rights say that this can enable more countries to produce the vaccines thereby increasing accessibility.
‘Raw material shortages could hit vaccine supplies’
April 23, 2021
Vaccine-makers pitch for tech-transfers with quality firms
Even as Nobel laureates and public health voices call for a waiver of intellectual property on Covid-19 technologies, including vaccines, global vaccine industry representatives point to export bans as a key barrier to access.
‘Bumpy road ahead’
Collaborations between companies, competitors, countries and regulators has helped deliver multiple Covid-19 vaccines, but the road ahead is “bumpy”, said an industry panel that reflected Big Pharma and companies from the developing world, speaking in a single voice.
On the IP waiver, Sai Prasad, Executive Director, Quality Operations, Bharat Biotech, said that the big picture was to deliver healthcare solutions during the pandemic and that can be done through technology transfer. But then again, technology can be transferred only to companies with the expertise to deliver a quality product, he sai
Apr 23, 2021 8:20am
A shortage of vaccine staffers at Swiss CDMO Lonza may have contributed to Moderna s recent vaccine shortfalls, the biotech s CEO said. (Wikimedia Commons)
COVID-19 has put global manufacturing supply chains through the wringer: First, there were fears of a glass vial shortage; then, concerns cropped up about hold ups on plastic bags used to grow vaccine cells. Now, executives at a suite of COVID-19 heavyweights are raising flags about another pandemic resource in scarcity: people.
When Moderna last week revealed that its COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to countries like the U.K. and Canada would come in light, the mRNA player blamed the squeeze on limited “human and material resources. During a Friday summit on the pandemic vaccine scale-up, the biotech s CEO Stéphane Bancel offered some additional context: “The bottleneck right now is people.”
Adobe
More than two million petitions were sent to the White House in hopes of convincing the Biden administration to support a proposal that would temporarily waive trade agreement provisions in a bid to widen access to Covid-19 vaccines in low and middle-income countries.
The effort was promoted by several U.S. lawmakers and dozens of advocacy groups amid ongoing controversy over the proposal, which was introduced last fall at the World Trade Organization. Since then, however, the effort has stalled amid push back by the pharmaceutical industry and some wealthy nations, including the U.S., over concerns that intellectual property rights will be compromised.
Covid-19 vaccine shortage: Pharma majors call for better forecasting of inventory and demand
March 10, 2021
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Better forecasting and management of raw materials and critical consumables and high-level political support – these were some of the suggestions that emerged from a meeting that saw the participation of big pharmaceutical companies – under the banner of International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) and others, including the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The meeting comes against the backdrop of Covid-19-related global shortage of raw materials flagged by the WHO, caused by supply shortfalls and exacerbated by export bans by governments looking to keep vaccine stocks for their respective countries. The IFPMA represents pharmaceutical majors, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Gilead Sciences, among many others, who are at the centre of supplying vaccines and drugs being used to tackle SARS-CoV-2.