
US and UK 'lead push against global patent pool for Covid-19 drugs' - quijoteuniv
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/17/us-and-uk-lead-push-against-global-patent-pool-for-covid-19-drugs
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learnstats2
I suggest that the 180+ countries which agree should now form their own bloc
with an open license system.

If the UK, US and Swiss governments are acting in a way which is harmful to
everyone in the world, and against the wishes of 96% of their own population,
a parallel power structure should be formed to lock them out and work around
that.

~~~
mjburgess
Sure. And those countries should pool their research budgets and direct them
to the institutions and companies which invent the vaccine technology.

Of course, that isn't being proposed.

What's being proposed is that the companies spending billions on research
_donate_ its results without compensation.

That would be a catastrophe for R&D, as in the next major health crisis, no
companies would do any R&D fearing bankruptcy if they did.

Money exists for a reason, and things cost money for a reason.

~~~
HarryHirsch
R & D in pharma has been drastically curtailed, partly because of poor
returns. Publically funded pharma research wouldn't be the worst idea, also
because of the research focus. Right now the money ends up in sectors that are
profitable (cancer), not in sectors beneficial to public health (antibiotics,
neglected tropical diseases).

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caseysoftware
To be clear, this is about the phrasing of a resolution, not actual bad
behavior, right?

Frankly, I'm less concerned about the words on the paper than what people
actually do.

~~~
Havoc
Given the leaders in question I'm concerned about bad behaviour too

~~~
caseysoftware
Does the resolution prevent and/or punish bad behavior? aka Is it binding in
case a signatory doesn't follow through on their commitment?

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Havoc
>Does the resolution prevent and/or punish bad behavior?

It's just an open letter signed by various presidents etc.

Very much doubt anyone is expecting the US to sign even if it's non-binding. I
mean they bailed on human rights council and UNESCO. UK...who knows they're in
full on improv mode right now.

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naruvimama
The primary purpose of a patent system is to maximise the benefits of
innovation in the long run. Not necessarily to maximise innovation.

Each country's laws are meant to maximise it for its own citizens as long as
the laws are applied without discrimination.

If you want to convince a large and poor country to accept your standards in
patent protection, show them how a large pool of their population will be
involved in productive R&D.

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Ididntdothis
I assume any vaccines or drugs will also cost 20x more in the US vs the rest
of the world.

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yogthos
Wonder why this is being downvoted, this is literally what's happening with
every other drug in US right now. For example, insulin is dirt cheap
everywhere except US where people can't afford it and die trying to ration it.

~~~
Ididntdothis
The insulin situation is crazy. I used to work with a guy whose wife had
diabetes. He said the only way for them to afford insulin was to get it from
Canada or Mexico. Otherwise he said he could not pay for it.

~~~
throwaway_pdp09
That's obscene

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nine_zeros
I think we're only going to see more piracy. If third world countries want to
stop being underdeveloped, they need to act now and allow pirates to stop this
inhumanity.

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yogthos
This is such an absurd argument:

>We continue to support public-private partnerships for product development,
and approaches such as non-exclusive voluntary licensing which promote
affordable access for all while also providing incentives to create life-
changing vaccines.

The researchers doing the actual work to create life-changing vaccines are
clearly not driven by profit, nor do they actually get a share of that profit
being salaried. The question is of a monetary incentive for funding the
research in the first place. Seems to me that this is a strong argument for
important research being done at state level since private companies won't do
it without a profit incentive.

~~~
StavrosK
It just means "we can't take pharmaceutical companies' profit away when it's
the biggest goldmine they've seen in the past century". They were fine before
COVID, they'll be fine without profiteering from it.

~~~
yogthos
The point here is that profit has no place in things like healthcare in the
first place. People's lives should not be evaluated in terms of profitability.
This also results in completely wrong incentives. For example, making a
treatment that can be sold repeatedly is more profitable than making a vaccine
that eradicates a diseases. Profit motive is entirely at odds with what's
actually desirable in this scenario.

~~~
StavrosK
Agreed, but it's a bit too short notice to change that in time for COVID
treatments/cures/vaccines.

~~~
yogthos
I think what's going to happen is that countries like China are going to lead
the way with covid drug and vaccine development.

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dustinmoris
The right middleground solution would be that countries who can pay should pay
and those who cannot can get a license to produce the vaccine domestically
without the right to sell it domestically or internationally. Basically
socialism on a country level. I’d expect countries like Germany to pay a big
price for the vaccine since they can afford it and the research must be funded
by the rich, right? Less wealthy nations can get a free license to produce the
vaccine domestically without paying. So everyone gets access AND the research
gets funded and incentivised.

EDIT:

I expected this to get downvoted. Everyone loves socialism unless they belong
to the richer group which is expected to settle the bill.

The hypocrisy is just staggering. Nobody has pushed or send help to countries
struggling with SARS, MERS or Ebola. People are still dying from those viruses
today. Nobody is pushing for groundbreaking changes to climate change so that
we don't kill the people of tomorrow. Just some worthless PR bs agreemetns
drafted at some bs EU meetings where countries agree to set low targets, still
fail to meet them and just pay small fines for it to wash their hands and feel
good about destroying our planet. But as soon as there's a threat to these old
fat elites right now then all of a sudden they have a vetted interest in doing
the right thing for themselves _cough_ sorry I mean obviously the greater good
of humanity in true PR language.

Humans are selfish pricks. The sooner one realises and accepts that as a fact,
the sooner one can live in harmony in this world.

~~~
toyg
Good luck selling that to the wealthy. German public opinion refuses to
support even their own neighbours in the European Union...

~~~
fxtentacle
German government funded research tends to be made publicly available, so if
they find something, other countries would probably gain the knowledge
necessary to produce their own medicine, too. Whether or not that creates some
sort of "you owe me for the future" situation is another thing. But better to
be healthy and owing your neighbors a favor, than to keep things a secret and
let people die.

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fxtentacle
I predict that this will backfire in a big way.

The people with the largest government-backed research budget and with the
largest pool of data about Covid are likely Chinese. They'll probably also
have enough patriotic citizens to try out new vaccines to benefit their
country.

Now imagine if a working Covid drug is indeed developed in China. Because the
US and UK hollowed out the sharing agreement, they'll then need to call in
favors.

That might well ruin Trump politically, but at the very least it'll put both
countries in a much weaker negotiation position for future trade agreements.

I just don't see any reason why the US or the UK might be leading this
research globally. So why would this seem like a good idea for them?

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noobaccount
Chinese pharma isn’t there yet.

~~~
yardie
Chinese manufacturing wasn't there yet. Chinese construction wasn't there yet.
Western culture keeps underestimating China, perpetually saying they aren't
there. And by the time they figure out they are there they are far past
wherever there was supposedly.

~~~
votepaunchy
It not hard. China keeps winning by running the same play.

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/china-
hacking-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/china-hacking-
poses-significant-threat-to-us-covid-19-response-says-fbi)

~~~
yardie
> Neither agency cited any specific examples

I don't even know what point you're trying to make.

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aurizon
Of course they led this. How could drug companies exist on open sourced
patents? One might say 'it is only the free market system that incents
development of new drugs, without which we would all die unmedicated (AKA the
ultimate revenge against your MD). There needs to be a middle ground. How else
can we eliminate this egregious abuse of the US poor. from wikiperdia:
Albendazole was developed in 1975.[5] It is on the World Health Organization's
List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in
a health system.[6] The wholesale cost in the developing world is between 0.01
and US$0.06 per dose.[7] In the United States, as of 2019, the wholesale cost
is about US$128 per dose.[8]

