About the OpenVax project. An alternative to patent suspension

About the OpenVax project

In the last days the possibility of suspending the patents granted to the developers of COVID vaccines is being discussed. Apparently this is a discussion just to satisfy the media and activists. It hardly gets the approval of the United States Congress, much less the unanimity of the World Trade Organization.

It is a good idea?

Some argue that it is a dangerous idea. These people affirm that if laboratories are forced to assign patents, to find a cure for the next pandemic we will depend on Russian and Chinese laboratories (Strongly dependent on the state) because no Westerner is going to bother to investigate. And the same goes for massive diseases like cancer or osteoarthritis.

In support they present the case of penicillin. Alexander Fleming, instead of patenting it, donated it to Humanity. Since anyone could make it (decreasing its profitability) nobody bothered to do it until World War II made it necessary.

On the other hand, suspending patents would not have any advantage that open source provides. Even if some other laboratory found an improvement in the manufacturing process or in the performance, it could not apply it. Nor will you be able to apply what you have learned to other products.

The funny thing is that if President Biden, Bill Gates and other advocates of giving away someone else's work They are truly interested in making vaccines reach everyone, they have a project that they can support.

About the OpenVax project and why it is a better alternative

OpenVax is a joint project of the Open Source Pharma Foundation, Harvard University School of Medicine and the Government of India to fight COVID-19 and other pandemics through modifying existing, low-cost and proven vaccines with expired patents. The initiative is already testing phase 3.

Those responsible for the project believe that they can compete with the large laboratories, but without having to sacrifice the principle of equity since certain attenuated virus vaccines protect against a wide range of pathogens, based on what is called "trained innate immunity"

The advantages of using known and patent-free vaccines, compared to those created and patented specifically for COVID are:

  • Shorter development time: They should only be tested for their effectiveness to prevent COVID, the rest of the homologation steps have already been done.
  • Safer: By being with us for a long time, we already know if they have adverse effects. This makes it more likely that people will want to wear it.
  • More efficacy in the long term: These vaccines seek to train the immune system to respond to a threat in general and not to a particular virus, so they will probably not require revaccination in case of mutations.
  • Costs: As these vaccines are already known and without patents, their production and acquisition cost will be lower.
  • Better use of public funds: Instead of transferring funds to a foreign laboratory, governments can promote their local pharmaceutical industry.

The project It has a financing of 10 million dollars. This appears to be sufficient for testing and infrastructure of individual and combination vaccines until the end of Phase 3 trials and, if one is found to work, until manufacturing and beginning distribution. However, they accept donations as each trial costs a minimum of $ 500.

Without giving rise to irresponsible conspiracy theories, the truth is that when this pandemic passes, the World Health Organization and the different governments will have to answer to their citizens for the late and inefficient management of the pandemic and why in the era of Big Data resorted to medieval measures such as mass confinement. In another article I wrote como open source tools helped combat fake news and the removal of rights based on fear.

The medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry will also have to be reformulated. And, I have no doubt whate the application of open source principles constitutes a better alternative that populist measures that, if carried out, will generate compensation that we will end up paying taxpayers.


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