Vaccine Makers Don't Lose When They Share Formula With Nations, Says Dr Fauci

The chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden has said that major pharma companies behind the COVID-19 vaccines won¡¯t lose out by sharing their vaccine formulas with the world.

Reuters

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Anthony Fauci said that pharma companies can still make a ton of money even if smaller drug-making companies make generic, more affordable versions of their products. He emphasised the fact that allowing the vaccine to be manufactured in low-middle income countries is crucial in ending the global pandemic.

This comes weeks after the Biden administration supported waiving of intellectual property rights for the novel coronavirus vaccines produced by US vaccine makers like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

The move enables pharma companies in other nations to create cheaper replicas of the vaccines made by the aforementioned companies and not infringing on any trade laws. This surely upset several pharmaceutical companies that have spent millions on vaccine development.

Fauci, in a conversation with Bloomberg Businessweek Conference, (reported first by Business Insider) said, "I am very much in favor of protecting the capability of pharmaceutical companies to continue to make a good profit so they can continue to put what it takes to get newer drugs and newer interventions. But there comes a time when the emergent nature of a situation requires doing things that would allow less well-developed nations to have access to these interventions. And in this case, that intervention is vaccines for COVID-19."

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He added, "A very important tenet in virology is that viruses don't mutate if they don't replicate; if you prevent it from spreading from person to person and replicating, it's not going to mutate. So the easiest way to prevent the emergence of a problematic mutant, which would lead to a variant, is to get as many people throughout the world vaccinated as quickly as you possibly can."`

He also stated that the US has been a leader in providing HIV vaccines and AIDS treatment to developing and underdeveloped nations around the world. Fauci revealed that when George E. Bush launched the President¡¯s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program; it saved 14 to 18 million lives, specifically in Southern Africa since 2003. Moreover, even though other drug companies offered generic HIV treatments to people in developing nations, drug companies in the US continued to make ¡°billions and billions¡± of dollars, hinting that not all will be lost.

Reuters

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It is important to note that even though the US has agreed to waive the intellectual property of the COVID-19 vaccines made in the US, there are other nations -- nations like the EU, Switzerland -- who haven¡¯t joined the motion yet.

A consensus of 164 members of the World Trade Organisation would have to agree to this and form a waiver plan. Only after everyone¡¯s consensus can this come into effect and this can take time.