Thread by @shailjapatel

During WW2, the US government forced pharmaceutical companies to share recipes for antibiotics. In the worldwide campaign against smallpox, the WHO maintained a register of manufacturing techniques and recipes...to share the technology globally."
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

"In fact, prior to the WTO and the proliferation of trade treaties, countries around the world regularly used “compulsory licensing” to make the pharmaceutical industry allow local manufacturers to produce drugs after paying a licence fee. Patents weren’t always sacrosanct."

"India and South Africa have asked the WTO to suspend patent protections to allow other companies to produce existing vaccines and drugs – but they have been blocked by rich nations."
#PeoplesVaccine

"Former world leaders and nobel laureates have called for suspending patents and coordinating production across the world – the kind of global effort that eliminated smallpox and polio in the 20th century. But so far their efforts have been unsuccessful."
#PeoplesVaccine