Don’t worry about the drug industry’s profits when considering a waiver on covid-19 intellectual property rights

Hawksbee, Luke; McKee, Martin; King, Lawrence

doi:10.1136/bmj-2021-067367

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…In the case of COVID-19 vaccines, most experts argue that the amount of risk facing drug companies is debatable because governments provided a substantial share of R&D funding and bought large quantities of the vaccines in advance. 56 The ISS-NL's expenses, as displayed in Table 5, include grants and mission-based costs which only represent a small portion of the total year-to-date (YTD) budget of $5,668,120 for the fiscal year 2020, that is, when global pharmaceutical companies Sanofi Pasteur and AstraZeneca began their respective research projects. Although the ISS-NL is a government-funded national laboratory, it does not identify itself as a granting organization.…”

Section: The Legal Regime Of the Iss Us National Laboratory Concernin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intellectual property rights in outer space: How can pharmaceutical companies protect COVID‐19 vaccine and immunotherapy developments aboard the ISS US national laboratory?

Jashari

Stojchevska

2023

World Intellectual Property

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Believing that space pharmaceuticals might be the key to winning the battle against COVID-19, global pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Sanofi Pasteur are currently collaborating with the International Space Station National Laboratory (ISS-NL) on research projects aiming to develop vaccine-and-immunotherapy products. The present legal regime for outer space, however, does not provide clear guidelines on safeguarding intellectual property rights (IPRs), due to the difficulties of reconciling the territorial nature of patent law and the nonterritorial nature of space law. Responding to such a legal gap, this research paper argues how pharmaceutical companies can protect such medical innovations by taking into consideration the international principles of space law addressing IPRs and extraterrestrial jurisdiction, as well as the legal regime of the ISS-NL. With the exception of the possibility of the barriers between the two areas of law not being insurmountable, the proposed COVID-19 TRIPS Waiver furthermore impacts space pharmaceuticals' IPRs and commercialization, which leads to the identification of some advantageous forms of agreements, including the Joint Endeavor Agreement, the Space Act Agreement, as well as the Cooperative Research

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Section: The Legal Regime Of the Iss Us National Laboratory Concernin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intellectual property rights in outer space: How can pharmaceutical companies protect COVID‐19 vaccine and immunotherapy developments aboard the ISS US national laboratory?

Jashari

Stojchevska

2023

World Intellectual Property

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“…Although a decrease in revenues could also be a reason for decreased marketing, the average profit margin of pharmaceutical industries did not decrease during the pandemic. 35 Because this trend might be affected by profits related to covid-19 for some specific pharmaceutical organizations, future research is needed to assess whether and to what extent the change in revenues of each organization influences their financial relations with physicians. We did not find a reduction in the number of payments for consulting and honorariums.…”

Section: Monthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in industry marketing payments to physicians during the covid-19 pandemic: quasi experimental, difference-in-difference study

Inoue

Figueroa

Kondo

et al. 2022

bmjmed

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ObjectiveTo determine changes in industry marketing payments to physicians due to the covid-19 pandemic.DesignQuasi experimental, difference-in-difference study.Data sourceUS nationwide database of licensed physicians, the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System, which was linked to a database of industry marketing payments made to physicians, Open Payments.PopulationAll licensed US physicians from 2018 to 2020 and those who received payments from industry.Main outcome measuresChanges in the value and the number of monthly industry payments physician received before (January-February 2020) and during the pandemic (April-December 2020) were assessed, adjusting for physicians’ characteristics (gender and specialty). As the control, data for the same months in 2019 were used. Industry payments by type of payments (eg, meals, travel, consulting fees, speaker compensation, honorariums), were also examined.ResultsAmong 880 589 US physicians included in this study, 267 463 (30.4%) physicians received a total of 4 117 482 non-research payments with $626 million ($710 per physician; £610; €708) in 2020 (40-44% decrease from $1047m in 2018 and $1115m in 2019). Industry payments decreased significantly in the months of the covid-19 pandemic (adjusted change in the value of −48.4%; 95% confidence interval −50.6 to −46.2; P<0.001; and adjusted change in the number of −47.4%, 95% confidence interval −47.7 to −47.1; P<0.001), particularly for meals and travel fees. No evidence was seen of a decrease in the number of industry payments for consulting and honorariums. A similar pattern was observed across physicians’ gender and specialty.ConclusionsIndustry payments to physicians, particularly those involving physical interactions such as meals and travel, substantially decreased during the pandemic. How such changes affect prescription practices and the quality of clinical practice in the long term should be investigated.

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“…Generic production of HIV/AIDS medicines in LMICs has occurred since the early 2000s, undertaken by, for example, the generic company Cipla, and there is no evidence that it has adversely affected R&D incentives in new HIV medicines by companies in HICs. 181 In the COVID-19 context, Pfizer has agreed to license low-cost generic production of the Paxlovid treatment to several global south countries via the Medicines Patent Pool, yet Pfizer still expects to make $15-25 billion from sales to rich countries. 182 Therefore, the idea that generic production of vaccines in, and for, the global south will destroy the incentives and economic model of pharmaceutical companies is untenable.…”

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confidence: 99%

Addressing Vaccine Inequity During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Trips Intellectual Property Waiver Proposal and Beyond

Thambisetty¹,

McMahon²,

McDonagh³

et al. 2022

C.L.J.

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This article examines global vaccine inequity during the COVID-19 pandemic. We critique intellectual property (IP) law under the 1994 WTO TRIPS Agreement, and specifically, the role that IP has played in enabling the inequities of production, distribution and pricing in the COVID-19 vaccine context. Given the failure of international response mechanisms, including COVAX and C-TAP, to address vaccine inequity, we argue the TRIPS waiver proposal should be viewed as offering a necessary and proportionate legal measure for clearing IP barriers that cannot be achieved by existing TRIPS flexibilities. Finally, we reflect on the waiver debate in the wider context of TRIPS and the need to boost global pandemic preparedness.

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Don’t worry about the drug industry’s profits when considering a waiver on covid-19 intellectual property rights

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

Intellectual property rights in outer space: How can pharmaceutical companies protect COVID‐19 vaccine and immunotherapy developments aboard the ISS US national laboratory?

Intellectual property rights in outer space: How can pharmaceutical companies protect COVID‐19 vaccine and immunotherapy developments aboard the ISS US national laboratory?

Changes in industry marketing payments to physicians during the covid-19 pandemic: quasi experimental, difference-in-difference study

Addressing Vaccine Inequity During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Trips Intellectual Property Waiver Proposal and Beyond

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