Patents are key to R&D, partnerships, pandemic readiness.
Stevens & Schultz 22, Philip Stevens was an official at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva and director of policy for International Policy Network. Mark Schultz is the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company Endowed Chair in Intellectual Property Law and the Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Program at the University of Akron School of Law. (Phillip, Mark, 2-28-2022, “The Role of Intellectual Property Rights in Preparing for Future Pandemics”, Geneva Network, https://geneva-network.com/research/the-role-of-intellectual-property-rights-in-preparing-for-future-pandemicss/)
Many of the proposals listed above would be extremely deleterious to pandemic research and development incentives.
IP is the bedrock upon which almost all of today’s Covid-19 vaccines have been built. The technologies they are based on did not come out of thin air at the beginning of the pandemic, but had been under development for decades, with substantial basic research in academic and government labs followed by years of risky investment by commercial start-ups to develop applications for patients.
Consider the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology which took decades of lab research and private sector-funded development by startups Moderna and BioNTech (ultimately joined by Pfizer) to overcome major difficulties and turn the technology into potentially safe and effective vaccines ready for large scale testing in patients which was fortunately very positive. Both companies and their investors on mRNA research prior to the pandemic.
While academic research is fundamental, the end result would not have been possible without the private sector, which depends on intellectual property rights.
Shortly before the pandemic started, we spoke to Dr. Derrick Rossi, the academic founder of Moderna. When asked whether the treatments could be brought from the academic lab to patients without the help of the private sector, was categorical: “Not a chance. Academics are good at academia and fundamental science. They are not good at developing drugs for patients.”
that bringing a drug to market takes many professionals, sharing their labour and diverse expertise. “This industry of professionals is out there… The more people that are involved in the chain, post-academic discovery, the more you have pros involved — all the way from IP filings to VCs to due diligence to assembling a team,” the more likely you are to develop a viable treatment.
IP helps not hinders R&D collaboration
The other claim frequently heard at the beginning of the pandemic was that IP poses a barrier to collaboration and knowledge-sharing, so in a time of emergency any related IP should be open licensed or pooled, forcibly if necessary.
With Covid, the opposite occurred. The IP system encouraged the rapid establishment of dozens of partnerships around Covid-19, with even prepared to cooperate and share proprietary intellectual resources such as compound libraries. Some companies chose not to assert patent rights for certain Covid-related medicines and manufacturing techniques. Partnerships can involve just the private sector, but also the public sector and academia, or a combination.
IP is key to such partnerships, as it allows the safe sharing of proprietary knowledge at all stages of the drug development cycle. In the early stages, the public disclosure inherent to patent rights enabled drug developers to identify partners with the right intellectual assets such as know-how, platforms, compounds and technical expertise. Without patents most of this valuable proprietary knowledge would be kept hidden as trade secrets, making it impossible for researchers to know what is out there – something those concerned about future pandemic preparedness should bear in mind.
Additionally, the existence of laws protecting intellectual property helps rights-holders make the decision to collaborate in the first place. As Dr. Kathrin Koerner, Head of Patents & Scientific Services at Merck KGaA, , “IP enabled the early discussions for COVID-19 collaborations and exchanges. Without it, things could not have been made available to other parties. Because we had already filed for the relevant patents, we were able to provide information to partners about things we had under development.” By allaying concerns about confidentiality, IP enables companies to open their compound libraries, and to share platform technology and know-how without worrying they are going to sacrifice their wider business objectives or lose control of their valuable assets.
For instance, rights holders might contribute IP that is useful for entirely different diseases to Covid-19 R&D. There are dozens of medicines that have been screened for efficacy against Covid or its clinical sequelae, some of which are patent protected for their original indication.
For instance, rights holders might contribute IP that is useful for entirely different diseases to Covid-19 R&D. There are or its clinical sequelae, some of which are patent protected for their original indication.