Manufacturing hurdles, not intellectual property protection, slow the rollout of COVID jabs

Geneva: The industry warns that removing intellectual property (IP) protection from the COVID-19 vaccine or forcing companies to share technology will not speed up or even slow jab production. I am.

Proponents of abolishing intellectual property rights say more companies can manufacture vaccines in more countries and provide wider access in poorer countries where they have been rarely administered.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is a country co-leading the World Trade Organization to exempt the COVID-19 vaccine from intellectual property rights, and on Friday Jab was “a public good and must be recognized as such. Must be. “

“We call on the pharmaceutical industry to transfer this technology, which has no intellectual property barriers, directly to low- and middle-income countries,” he told an event hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Challenge vaccine nationalism together and show that protection of intellectual property rights does not cost lives.”

Vaccine makers have expressed a broad commitment to work together to increase production, but at another event on Friday, industry representatives said IP exemption and compulsory technology sharing were in the wrong way. I insisted that there was.

The waiver of intellectual property rights “will not provide tools to increase vaccine doses,” Thomas Queni, head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Associations (IFPMA), told reporters.

He said that about 275 manufacturing transactions, including technology transfers between stubborn competitors, would target 10 billion doses by the end of the year, with the industry already producing 0 to 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines. I pointed out that it helped to increase the number.

Industry insiders say the goal is not IP restrictions or broader technology transfers, but the resolution of serious challenges related to trade barriers and export restrictions, hindering the movement of vaccine components and the vaccine itself. It was.

“Vaccine production is not just about patents,” said Cyprasad, head of quality operations at Indian vaccine manufacturer Bharat Biotech and president of the Network of Vaccine Manufacturers in Developing Countries (DCVMN).

Prasad pointed out the complexity of ensuring that manufacturers have the equipment and know-how to meet the stringent quality and safety standards required for vaccine production.

“This is a very complex space, a very complex science, a very complex manufacturing ….. you need to be careful about who you transfer the technology to.”

Manufacturing difficulties can have disastrous consequences, as skepticism about vaccines is already widespread, warned Michelle McMurray Heath, head of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

“We don’t want to do anything to undermine the credibility of the vaccine,” she said.

“We need to recognize that there are only a handful of manufacturers with that expertise in the world, and we need to focus on providing them with the materials they need to produce as many doses as possible. there is.”

Industry insiders said the key challenge was the global shortage of over 100 ingredients and ingredients needed to produce vaccines.

Much effort has been made to ensure sufficient glass vials and syringes, but today they are used in the lipids used in the production of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, and in the vaccine. There is a shortage of tubes and plastic bags to be used. Production process.

Faced with this shortage, Moderna chief Stephane Bancel told reporters that promoting technology transfer to unequipped manufacturers that produce large amounts of vaccines could backfire. ..

“As more players come to this space, they will rob more raw materials from the people (placed) to make this year’s vaccine,” he said. McMurry-Heath agreed.

“Attempting to spread the limited raw materials we currently have to many manufacturers, perhaps inexperienced in vaccine production, could jeopardize the progress we are on track,” she said. I warned.

Moderna aims to produce one billion COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year and hopes to produce another 1.4 billion vaccines next year.

However, Bansel warned that expanding efforts to share technology to help others make jabs could actually delay production.

The transfer of technology and expertise will take months, so the new partners currently being added will “have little impact” on global vaccine production this year, he said.

However, “the ability to scale up in 2021 will diminish,” Bansel said, noting that production staff need to be transferred to the technology transfer process.

“Distracting the attention of a small team of engineers, technology transfer needs to be done now. The life-threatening impact and virus epidemic of 2021 will be enormous,” he warned.