The tale of patents’ misuse by big pharma companies 

Imagine mobilising for a war, but only arming a handful of soldiers. It's a doomed strategy but that's exactly what the world is doing now. Private companies have been leading the global vaccine research. Pfizer, Moderna, J&J vaccines are being developed by big pharma companies.  

Big pharma companies are acting like mercenaries as they are singularly focussed on profits. They sell life-saving drugs for a profit, perform life-saving surgeries for a profit. 

For decades, big pharma has spun money out of health crisis using patents. Think of it as a glorified way of calling dibs if you have a patent for something, only you can produce or use it. If someone else does, you can sue them. The whole idea behind patents is to protect ingenuity but it has been misused by pharma companies. 

They have locked up formulas of life-saving drugs and created a profit-churning monopoly. Humira is a drug prescribed for arthritis. It is among the most popular ones in the market. There are 132 patents protecting the makers, which means Humira is a guaranteed monopoly for at least 39 years. Then, there is Lantus, a long-acting insulin used in type one and type two diabetes again, extremely popular in the market. There are 49 patents protecting Lantus for a period of 37 years. 

Both these medicines can save lives but there is a monopoly on both of them. It means higher prices and lower output. It's an unfair system and today is a good day to talk about it. It's World Intellectual Property Day, which is supposed to create awareness on patents and trademarks and copyrights to celebrate the innovation of creators. But the way patents are being misused, what exactly are we celebrating? 

Patents have put a price tag on human lives and they continue to do so during this pandemic. Right from the start, patents have complicated our pandemic response. Think back to the mask shortage in 2020. It was because American multi-national 3m had a patent on N95 masks. So, new firms could not start producing immediately. It was the same story for testing. Companies patented rapid testing kits. So, there was no scope for mass production and now with vaccines, nothing has changed. The formulas are still locked away and only a handful of companies have successfully developed vaccines. 

Imagine if they shared their designs with the world, we could end the pandemic in weeks, but that would mean sacrificing profits. So, what's the solution here? How can we side-step patents? 

One option is to pool them. The World Health Organization is using this method for HIV and tuberculosis. In it, multiple patent holders come together and form a consortium. And within this consortium, they share patents. So now, there are more producers for each medicine. You could say a patent pool is one step below open source. Another option is to do away with intellectual property rights in pharma. This might sound impossible, but there is a real-life example for it. 

The WHO's global influenza surveillance and response system. Their scientists meet every two years and update each other on the developing strains and finalise a vaccine design. The jabs are then produced in government funded labs around the world. There are no private players. This could become the future of public health but knowing big pharma, they will fight back, which is where governments come in. No monopoly can thrive without the state's ignorance as international law puts public health over patents. So technically, governments can force pharma companies to share their designs, but they still haven't done it. Instead, what they have done is hoard vaccines.  

The arithmetic of vaccination is simple. Two shots per person. So, it's not tough to calculate how many shots you actually need to buy but the United States and Europe are on a buying spree. Around 16% of the world population has bought more than half the output and they are just sitting on this stockpile. The US has ordered around 40 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine, but they don't need these jabs. Once the next shipment of Pfizer and Moderna arrive, the US will have enough shots to inoculate every adult thrice. This is a classic case of hoarding.  

Monopolies and hoarding kill competition but here, it is killing people. This world IPR day, let's bring back the original motto of patents, ie to enrich human lives, to further human capacity, etc. And if big pharma doesn't relent, it's time for governments to put the foot down.