Since COVID-19 causes worldwide chaos, the world's largest economies are competing to find a cure for this new pandemic and take measures to protect its citizens with any vaccine or treatment when available. COVID-19 launched a brand-new global arms race, a patent-right race for a COVID-19 vaccine.
A patent is a process by which an invention or useful method is documented and protected. In the patent process, the inventor fully describes the invention. In the pharmaceutical industry, research and development processes for a single drug are very costly. But patents help companies recover this cost. Patents thus encourage scientific innovation and research. Given the pandemic currently in the world, experts fear that the vaccine to be developed for COVID-19 will be restricted by patents by some companies or governments.
Unfortunately, there is no vaccine for COVID-19 currently. We have already mentioned the active substance used in the treatment of Sars disease. Hydroxychloroquine is an active substance used effectively in the treatment of SARS disease. This active substance, which we mentioned in our previous article, is also used for the treatment of COVID-19, which is today's danger.
Pharmaceutical companies of strong economies such as Europe, America, and China think that they are very close to finding treatment. World leaders have assured that if the vaccine is found by a strong economy, it will be licensed worldwide.
China and America entered the intellectual property war for the corona virus.
Experts, therefore, fear that when the US or China first developed and patented a vaccine, access to the vaccine is used as a political sanction against the other. Political tensions between the two countries have made it difficult for Chinese and American laboratories to cooperate to gain access to a COVID-19 antiviral that can potentially treat COVID-19 symptoms.
Gilead, one of the largest laboratories in the United States, has patent rights to Remesdivir, the only antiviral believed to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19. You can access this patent document from databases such as Espacenet, Google Patent. You can search the code "WO2017049060" in the databases to reach.
Said drug was originally developed for the Ebola virus. But after failing for this purpose, the firm realized that Remesdivir was effective in alleviating the effects of various coronaviruses. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the company donated this drug to hospitals in China to test Remesdivir effectiveness on the corona virus. Later, the Wuhan Institute in China applied for a utility model, which was created by using a malaria drug, Klokuin and Remesdivir. However, if this application does not contain innovation and is only related to the combination of the two drugs available, it is very difficult to approve the application of the Wuhan Institute. Even if the application is accepted, due to Remesdivir's rights, Gilead will have a say or be entitled to compensation. All these events show the distrust between the two countries.
After a vaccine is ready, it takes between 12-18 months to be used by the public. If a vaccine is found for COVID-19, and then there is tension between China and America, they can use it as a trump card for commercial warfare.
Patents and scientific innovations are intended to work independently from policies, as required by humanity and society. Political tensions should not be allowed to affect society in the face of pandemics such as the Corona virus or threats that pose a risk to society. We will see in time whether the COVID-19 treatment will turn into an arms race. In this article, we talked about the vaccine race on the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you.