Thread by @ChadBown

VACCINES 🧵

1) Yes, policymakers & companies must address IP / tech transfer

2) But another bottleneck is how COUNTRIES cooperate to get vaccine manufacturing scaled up globally

Thanks @Aime_Williams for describing a proposal by @TomBollyky & me... 1/
ft.com/content/f230e4…

.@TomBollyky and I have proposed a Covid-19 Vaccine Investment and Trade Agreement (CVITA)... 2/

The problem to solve:

The vaccine manufacturing supply chain is complex.

(Reflexively we think "Big Pharma," but that is NOT reality for Covid-19 vaccines)

THIS supply chain is highly fragmented & requires considerable coordination to get ANY vaccines manufactured at all 3/

US government helped coordination and scaling up of US production through Operation Warp Speed.

Billions of dollars of TARGETED US subsidies of "outputs" (vaccines) **AND** all of the "inputs" (vials, bioreactors, bags, cellular materials) needed along that supply chain... 4/

Are there lessons from the US model to now scale up global production - not for HUNDREDS of millions of doses for Americans, but BILLIONS of doses for the world?

*THAT* is where it gets more complicated. Why a Covid-19 Vaccine Investment and Trade Agreement (CVITA) is needed 5/

CVITA needs to coordinate subsidies to

A) SOME countries to increase INPUT production (ingredients & equipment)

B) OTHER countries to expand OUTPUT (vaccine 'assembly')

AND ensure trade of A) for B)...

This requires EXPLICIT international cooperation and incentives. 6/

For more details on our CVITA proposal, please read, share, talk about, poke holes in it, and let us know what you think.

ENDS 🧵 /
piie.com/blogs/trade-an…