The meeting is important, Wednesday, November 2, at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. At stake, a possible lifting of patents on treatments and diagnostics linked to Covid-19. The idea is to allow all laboratories to be able to produce the tools to fight against the virus. As has already been done, partially at least, for vaccines. But as with vaccines, the WHO is divided on the issue.
The lifting of patents on anti-covid treatments divides the WHO
To my right India, South Africa, Brazil who want to be able to freely manufacture drugs and tests against Covid-19. On my left, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the European Union who claim that this would kill the innovation capacity of pharmaceutical groups. If this reminds you of anything, that’s normal. It was the exact same confrontation over vaccine patents. The difference is that if all laboratories in developing countries do not necessarily have the capacity to produce messenger RNA vaccines, it is much easier to manufacture anti-Covid drugs. The effect of lifting patents on treatments and tests would therefore be almost immediate. Much more than for vaccines where it is still difficult to measure the impact of the decision taken by the World Trade Organization in June 2002.
And all the more so since we now produce more vaccines today than we administer. Pharmaceutical companies insist that knocking down patents does not help fight the virus better. A reality in a certain sense because patents are somewhat the tip of the iceberg. There are all the other forms of intellectual property, such as copyrights, industrial secrets… which have not been lifted in the case of anti-covid vaccines. This is what Yuan Qiong Hu who follows the file for the NGO Doctors Without Borders says: “Pfizer and Moderna have still not shared key elements of their RNA technology. We even see the opposite phenomenon. With more and more legal proceedings launched by these companies over patents and intellectual property. is quite ironic to see this when for two years, pharmaceutical companies and states were telling us that intellectual property was not the subject.” Yuan Qiong Hu refers to the recent lawsuit filed by Moderna accusing Pfizer of infringing its patent on the RNA vaccine. The proof that the big groups are not ready to let go of ballast in the field of intellectual property. This could deter many small labs in developing countries from getting into the Covid-19 field, whether it is vaccines and maybe tomorrow drugs, for fear of ending up in court.
The production of the anti-Covid vaccine on the African continent continues
The World Health Organization did not wait for the lifting of patents to develop its own vaccine against Covid-19. It is being developed in the Afrigen laboratory, located in Cape Town, South Africa. The objective is to create a vaccine, independently of the big pharmaceutical groups, in order to then be able to make it available to the whole world. This first messenger RNA vaccine will soon be tested on humans.
For the moment, mice and hamsters are receiving this vaccine before being offered to humans in the spring of 2023. This vaccine is a copy of the Messenger RNA vaccine from the company Moderna. Scientists have the right to copy the formula, but marketing can then be blocked by Moderna, which has filed patents, particularly in South Africa. The lab has said it won’t enforce its patents in poor countries so as not to prevent the development of these vaccines, but it’s just a word, nothing has been signed and NGOs fear Moderna will return on his decision so this uncertainty is like a sword of Damocles above the development of this vaccine.
The decrease in Covid-19 cases and the end of vaccination campaigns do not threaten the development of this vaccine. Because we must see the development of this anti-Covid 19 vaccine as a pretext. What interests scientists is mastering the technology of the Messenger RNA vaccine independently of the major pharmaceutical groups. Ultimately, the World Health Organization would like to develop vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV or rarer diseases that are of less interest to major laboratories, such as Rift Valley fever and West Nile virus. What is being played out at Afrigen’s offices in Cape Town, South Africa is the future of immunization in poor countries. We are talking here about a $117 million project over five years which should enable 15 other countries to take ownership of RNA technology. Tunisian and Senegalese scientists are also expected in Cape Town in December to begin this technology transfer. Even if Covid-19 disappears, the development of this vaccine is essential, even if it may never be put on the market, scientists must prove that they know how to make a vaccine from A to Z.