41–50 of 178 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
NIH (a US government run institution) holds the main patents on mRNA technology.
No, the NIH helped with the spike protein sequence. There are plenty of other parents needed to make the actual vaccine.
How would a "waiver" work? Last I understood about law, a country can't take away the rights of companies (or people) without their consent or modifying the patent laws. Or is this a matter where because it has to do with overseas patent protection, the US could decline to enforce certain agreements? And don't companies have patent protection in every country they seek to do business anyway?
Doesn't really matter, waiver or not. It's not like most industries or people can go about making this vaccines themselves. That's why I sometimes laugh about these folks that what to invalidate patents and have everything in the open. If Toyota posted schematics of their trucks online, do you think, you and I could build one without throwing resources, time, and money down a toilet? I would have better luck growing…
This seems like a performative move that does nothing at best, and destroys the credibility of mRNA vaccines at worst. The manufacture of these vaccines is not simple. It is not simply a matter of the US “waiving” a patent. However if other countries decide to participate in this performance, they may end up just manufacturing a vaccine which doesn’t work. The virus is killing thousands per day. Do you really think a…
If as you state, countries like India are going to ignore the patent anyway, doesn’t it make sense to give it to them and help ensure they produce it successfully to save the world from the pandemic?
Something here smells deeply hypocritical. Currently vaccine companies such as the German Curevac (which is the vaccine company Trump famously tried to buy) is being held back by lack of core ingredients which are under American export bans. The US still upholds the export bans setup by the Trump administration. Biden can just revoke those. Yet he promotes the idea of waivering vaccine patents knowing well how hard t…
There sane way to do this is to buy the patents for a few hundred billions. A small price compared to the benefit these companies have provided the world.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cool. So then these companies should have nothing to fear.
They rightly fear that in 2-3 years, when the pandemic is likely over everywhere and other people have figured out how to commercialize the IP, they won't be the only ones producing their vaccines. This isn't going to help India or anyone in the short term and there'll be more than enough doses for every person on Earth by next year. Why should they not retain the IP rights to make a profit on new generations that ne…
Why not? I’m not hearing a clear argument or evidence to support that withholding the patent recipe wouldn’t save millions of lives?
India now has a very high number of cases. As it stands now, your argument just sounds to me like:
“yes human lives, but... profit“.
Please could you elaborate on your argument and/or provide examples of what you’re describing happening in other cases?
This seems like a performative move that does nothing at best, and destroys the credibility of mRNA vaccines at worst. The manufacture of these vaccines is not simple. It is not simply a matter of the US “waiving” a patent. However if other countries decide to participate in this performance, they may end up just manufacturing a vaccine which doesn’t work. The virus is killing thousands per day. Do you really think a…
If as you state, countries like India are going to ignore the patent anyway, doesn’t it make sense to give it to them and help ensure they produce it successfully to save the world from the pandemic?
Patents read like a menu item. “Chocolate cake with peanut butter and strawberries.”
Or “Adenovirus #16 with coronavirus XXX sample modification.”
To make the vaccine you also need—“whip up 2 eggs, 4 cups of flour and a 30 ml of oil.”
Companies often withhold this info so that they can keep the edge and to make the cost of copy much higher.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't really matter, waiver or not. It's not like most industries or people can go about making this vaccines themselves. That's why I sometimes laugh about these folks that what to invalidate patents and have everything in the open. If Toyota posted schematics of their trucks online, do you think, you and I could build one without throwing resources, time, and money down a toilet? I would have better luck growing…
But what if there is a factory that can spit out lots of effective vaccines if given the recipe? Shouldn’t we use every resource available?
Something here smells deeply hypocritical. Currently vaccine companies such as the German Curevac (which is the vaccine company Trump famously tried to buy) is being held back by lack of core ingredients which are under American export bans. The US still upholds the export bans setup by the Trump administration. Biden can just revoke those. Yet he promotes the idea of waivering vaccine patents knowing well how hard t…
I believe this is exactly the reason why the US promotes it and Germany opposes it. It's mainly a discussion about whether Pfizer (US) has to pay licensing fees to Biontech (DE).
Indian pharmacies already disregard medication patents without anybody's permission. Vaccine manufacturing is just a way more involved process than anything what an average organic synthesis shop can handle. Dealing with antibodies, proteins, plasmids, or RNA requires real factories rather than garage labs. What one need is a complete process transfer : instructions on setting up every process, along with supplies ne…
I would love it if somebody would post a more detailed explanation of the mRNA vaccine manufacturing process here on HN. The news media keeps mumbling vague terms like "ingredients", and it's frustrating. Conventional vaccine production is a highly biological process... chicken eggs being used to make the flu vaccines and so forth. I was under the impression that the mRNA vaccines are chemically much simpler -- just…
I would want to know how they do it (mRNA isolation) too, but nobody will share that knowledge for free.
Even most simple methods like inactivation require a cell culture tech, which means lots of expensive bioreactors, and extreme levels of sterility.