🧵1/ In a pandemic, we have two urgent interests: that life saving vaccines/ treatments be created, manufactured, & distributed, and that the disease be quickly contained/eliminated worldwide without a potentially catastrophic resurgence. #covid19
blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/04/02…
blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/04/02…
2/ The financial interests of pharmaceutical shareholders accord with our first interest, but not always with the second.
Product allocations go to the highest bidders, rather than to where need is greatest or the pandemic may be contained most effectively. @ThomasPogge
Product allocations go to the highest bidders, rather than to where need is greatest or the pandemic may be contained most effectively. @ThomasPogge
3/ The system as it stands is designed to fail, because public health is a secondary goal behind financial recuperation & explicitly financial profit
In a pandemic, it can’t be that way.
But I don’t need to tell you all this- you have been watching it unfold already. #covid19
In a pandemic, it can’t be that way.
But I don’t need to tell you all this- you have been watching it unfold already. #covid19
4/ In our new @bmj_latest, Dr. Pogge & I explore what it looks like to re-structure pharmaceutical incentives creatively to ensure that the health needs of the world align w/ a model that drives pharma to actually create & deliver products regardless of a country’s ability to $
5/ This would be a funding mechanism *in addition* to the existing traditional patent-protected pathway; there is large market potential that actually can be aligned with getting impoverished populations access to life saving treatments/vaccines urgently. #covid19
6/ We have written about this as well previously in the context of #Ebola and #Zika virus over the past few years. That this has come up once again is no surprise - & guarantees we will run into the exact same issues again in the future w/ more pandemic prone diseases. 
7/ As a point of ethics, I personally have hesitated to think that helping rich pharmaceutical companies get richer is the “right”way to go about this.
But- if the urgent needs of the poor will most effectively be met through the market, then we must figure out how to do it.
But- if the urgent needs of the poor will most effectively be met through the market, then we must figure out how to do it.
8/ Because what is unjustifiably “wrong” is to continue with the system as it currently stands.
With that, we should also continue our more urgent push to increase COVAX $$ as well as create a sustained program like PEPVAR (see recent NEJM piece ⬇️) #covid19
With that, we should also continue our more urgent push to increase COVAX $$ as well as create a sustained program like PEPVAR (see recent NEJM piece ⬇️) #covid19
Cc @YaleGHJP @aidanhollis @rvenkayya @SethAHoffmanMD @IngridKatzMD @RanuDhillon @syramadad @LawrenceGostin @BenjaminMMeier @JournalofEthics @ZekeEmanuel @RWeintraubMD @RebeccaKatz5 @LindaGailBekker @NickKristof @BhadeliaMD @gregggonsalves @alexandraphelan @MalakaGharib @zeynep
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