Thread by @ncsullivan

As a global health prof, I have serious thoughts about this. /1 🧵⬇️

Pressure Mounts to Lift Patent Protections on Coronavirus Vaccines nytimes.com/2021/05/03/us/…

#BigPharma interest in in developing new and necessary vaccines, let alone new antibiotics, has been waning for years. This is in spite of ⬆️ antibiotic resistance. There's no lack of demand for new vaccines & antibiotics. /2
healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.13…

If market demand drove innovation, we'd see a lot more new vaccines, antibiotics, but instead drug companies invest in drugs that ppl take over long term, and drive up the costs of those drugs for primarily chronic illnesses which people MUST TAKE to live /3

For #BigPharma, a huge amount of profits come from increasing the costs of existing drugs astronomically since at least 2012. Median cost ⬆️ of the most popular branded drugs from 2012-2017 was 67%. /4
jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Patents aren't the only way to incentivize innovation. And our existing patent system is totally broken. Drug companies can make minor changes that don't improve health outcomes, re-patent and 'evergreen' a drug patent, at great cost to people /5
ted.com/talks/priti_kr…

We already know how damaging patents are in global health crises. Due to patents, 10mil+ people died unnecessarily of HIV/AIDS. Activists' pressure over years finally got #BigPharma to cave & allow generic drug production. /6 imdb.com/title/tt178706…

The fat profits #BigPharma is making off COVID-19 vaccines is on the backs of taxpayers--either these companies took taxpayer $ to develop the vaccine or they have huge contracts with gov't as purchaser of vaccines. /7
nytimes.com/2021/05/04/bus…

This is for the most lucrative industry in the world, which, according to @USGAO outpaces profits of every other large industry. /8
gao.gov/assets/690/688…

And #BigPharma CEO's make bank also, while #PhRMA is a top spender in lobbying congress. The question isn't whether profits should incentivize innovation, but how much profit is too much? /9 graphics.wsj.com/table/CEOPAY_s…
thehill.com/policy/healthc…

Meanwhile if we don't vaccinate countries in Global South en masse, guess what? We remain in a "forever pandemic" because places where COVID-19 runs rampant ⬆️ potential for variants resistant to said vaccines. See Brazil, India, Tanzania, South Africa, UK variants /10

A forever pandemic is bad for all of us. But you know who it's good for? #BigPharma, because they get to keep making boosters for every new variant, selling to gov'ts globally. /11

Removing patent protections won't entirely fix the problem, but it's a necessary start. Will also need to 1) make raw materials for vaccine production more widely available; 2)invest in manufacturing capacity worldwide; 3) coordinate sharing knowledge, materials worldwide /12

None of us gets out of this pandemic until everyone does. Patents ensure innovation, all right. But if there's a way to abuse the system to make bank, the profits b4 patients approach will find a way. Never was it more prudent to regulate the industry than now. /fin

Ok and here’s another one outlining how many of the patent supporting arguments are simply hogwash

jacobinmag.com/2021/04/bill-g…