My understanding used to be that this will not change much on an immediate basis since the nano-particle delivery system + its manufacturing chain are quite complicated and not easily scalable. Does anyone know if this is not the case?
A critical view of this pledge, separately posted on HN:<p><a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/moderna-patents-covid-19-vaccine" rel="nofollow">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/moderna-patents-covid-19-...</a><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26941571" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26941571</a><p>TL;DR: Patents these days are effectively worthless at reproducing the invention, they only function as a legal way to stop competitors.
I know making a vaccine is a little different than making strawberry jam, but why is there so little supply of the Moderna vaccine given this situation?
Wonderful step.<p>An even better one is to immediately release the raw data from the ongoing RCT, as a substantial chorus of scientists has asked, and to which Peter Doshi has given articulate voice in BMJ: <a href="https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/04/peter-doshi-pfizer-and-modernas-95-effective-vaccines-we-need-more-details-and-the-raw-data/" rel="nofollow">https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2021/01/04/peter-doshi-pfizer-and-...</a>
This looks like a good gesture from Moderna, but I do not think it will be of much help for most the developing world since the low temperatures needed for the storage of the vaccine are not feasible for the distribution infrastructure of these countries.
> Beyond Moderna’s vaccine, there are other COVID-19 vaccines in development that may use Moderna-patented technologies. We feel a special obligation under the current circumstances to use our resources to bring this pandemic to an end as quickly as possible. Accordingly, while the pandemic continues, Moderna will not enforce our COVID-19 related patents against those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic. Further, to eliminate any perceived IP barriers to vaccine development during the pandemic period, upon request we are also willing to license our intellectual property for COVID-19 vaccines to others for the post pandemic period.<p>This is great! Moderna shows the world that you can be innovative and charitable while still running a for-profit business.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/world/vaccine-patents-us-eu.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/world/vaccine-patents-us-...</a><p>Apparently it’s not as simple as temporarily waiving IP claims. On the one hand they don’t even own some of the rights being waived, and on the other hand they would need to do more than just waiving rights to truly support their stated goal of accelerating immunisation against COVID-19.<p>This leaves, for me, a weird taste of a PR exercise more than a true commitment to the message they sent out.
<a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/moderna-patents-covid-19-vaccine" rel="nofollow">https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/moderna-patents-covid-19-...</a><p>"Moderna’s Pledge Not to Enforce the Patents on Their COVID-19 Vaccine Is Worthless"<p>tldr...all the good stuff are trade secrets.
That's quite big (and great) news. Many people have been arguing that this should be done so that labs in e.g. India could legally produce the vaccine in particular for countries outside the rich western countries.<p>This is also much in the interest of the rich western countries, because quicker immunization worldwide reduces the risk of new mutations.<p>Let's see if the others will follow.