The pharmaceutical industry overall has been deeply opposed to waiving COVID-19 vaccine patents, but a historian of the industry explains that drug companies once opposed patents altogether.
COVID-19 has exacerbated a backlog of domestic and foreign drug manufacturing inspections that the FDA is still too short-staffed to adequately deal with.
Word that the U.S. has bought up the entire supply of the COVID-19 drug remdesivir is another reminder that in a pandemic, treatments and vaccines need to be accessible to everyone, globally.
As the United States risks prompting a bidding war for coronavirus drugs, can the world show solidarity over equitable access to medicines? And is remdesivir any use against COVID-19 anyway?
It usually takes 10 years for a new vaccine to complete clinical trials, but we’ve been promised a COVID-19 vaccine in 12 to 18 months. Even if such fast-tracked development is possible, is it wise?
The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare Europe’s vulnerability to drug-supply disruption. Still, it remains by far the world leader in pharmaceutical products.
Ayfer Ali, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick
Drug repurposing represents our only hope for the treatment of COVID-19 in the short term. But quick and rigorous trials need to be run to provide evidence these drugs work.