As vaccination campaigns gain pace across the world, the effects of inequitable vaccine distribution are beginning to manifest. High-income countries that pre-purchased a bulk of vaccines are leading the pack in vaccinating their populations. Canada has vaccinated more than half of its population, alongside the US and the UK, after securing the largest number of vaccines than any other country at about nine doses per person. Meanwhile, only four out of 54 African countries have thus far vaccinated one-tenth of their populations. Other developing countries are relying on donations from wealthier nations to inoculate their citizens. The Serum Institute of India, an Asian powerhouse for low-cost drug manufacturing, is ramping up its production facilities for accessible vaccines, but had to redirect half of its production to local demand due to India’s high daily new cases. Many other manufacturing companies are handicapped in speeding up vaccine production to cover the rising demand of vaccines for many developing countries.

With the limited supply of vaccines hampering global vaccination efforts, a vaccine patent waiver was proposed to the World Trade Organization (WTO), with the support of South Africa and India. Under this proposal, the enforcement of intellectual property rights for all developments towards fighting the pandemic, such as treatment drugs and vaccines, will be waived. This would effectively allow other countries to produce patented products and share technologies or data with each other without the fear of legal retribution, which would prove to be beneficial in overcoming the pandemic. Manufacturing companies that are restrained by patent infringement will be allowed to freely develop vaccines and contribute to the global supply, and countries that lack production capabilities could access these vaccines at a cheaper price. 

The importance of patent waivers can be seen from the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the early 2000s. Pharmaceutical companies from wealthier nations decided to collaborate by sharing their treatment data with one another. Through this, they came to realize that rather than taking a single antiviral drug, a combination of three to four antiviral drugs effectively reduced viral resistance and replication, and therefore slowed the progression of HIV. This particular case manifested the essence of cooperation in times of need; when pharmaceutical companies worked on top of each others’ results, they were able to come up with a life-saving discovery that may have not been possible had they worked by themselves. A patent waiver encourages a similar kind of atmosphere, where companies share their data and technology with each other. 

At the same time, however, the treatments were inaccessibly expensive to millions of Africans who were also going through a deadly HIV/AIDS epidemic. The South African government attempted to enact the Medicines and Related Substances Act of 1997, a legislation that allowed the use and importation of cheaper generic substitutes of patented drugs for treatment, as well as price transparency. About 40 multinational corporations filed a suit against the South African government, citing a violation of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of the WTO. The US and the European Committees (EC) attempted to impose economic sanctions on South Africa, but was met with intense public backlash and international pressure. The corporations ended up dropping the suit, and in 2002, former US president Bill Clinton took action and facilitated a tech transfer scheme that required Western pharmaceutical companies to share their patented drugs’ formulas to Indian generic manufacturing companies. This move saw a drastic decrease in annual treatment costs, from almost 10,000 USD to only about 100 USD. 

This shows that while countries themselves can create laws to resolve a pandemic on a national scale, it takes the initiative from the companies themselves to effect significant changes. Despite having shared their patented discoveries to generic manufacturing companies, drug companies from high-income countries never lost their edge in innovation, and are still the frontrunners of HIV/AIDS research and development. Patent waivers could similarly benefit us in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic by opening new avenues for governments to respond to their respective local situations. A patent waiver will give developing countries more independence to address the pandemic.

History already shows that patent waivers could stop pandemics, and there is no reason to think it wouldn’t be the same case for COVID-19. The pandemic will not end when some countries are left behind in inoculating their citizens. With the presence of a patent waiver, vaccines could become more affordable, and in order to achieve this, the support from manufacturing companies is crucial.