The vaccine shortage doesn't need to exist. Pfizer and Moderna could share their design with the dozens of other pharma companies who stand ready to produce their vaccines and end the pandemic.— James Hamblin (@jameshamblin) February 2, 2021
AstraZeneca got the help of The Serum Institute in India, for example, so it proves that they can cooperate. If they can do that, I don't see why open sourcing would be impossible. And they're manufacturing at cost, so lack of profit isn't the issue there. Also, Oxford were considering open sourcing before Bill Gates stepped in.
It just seems like Bill Gates and others were convinced that the poors couldn't do it, although India isn't the richest, and yet The Serum Institute is the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world I think.
What happened to competition and consumers (governments in this case) being able to determine the best products?
One issue I can think of is regulation, if you have several versions of each vaccine that might have key differences and require separate studies.
That's what's confusing about all of those replies. Of course its difficult to manufacture it, but are they really saying that other phama companies wouldn't be able to replicate the process if the vaccines were "open sourced". I would think that having more companies producing the vaccines would be better so that way the pressure to produce the vaccines wouldn't be shouldered by just two companies. They're making the case for why the vaccine should be shared with other companies.
Is there any open source covid vaccine from any country? Cuz it would be pretty funny if a mass produced open source vaccine developed by say, China or Cuba, were to sweep the world. Or if all of Latin America was reasonably vaccinated faster than the US
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AstraZeneca got the help of The Serum Institute in India, for example, so it proves that they can cooperate. If they can do that, I don't see why open sourcing would be impossible. And they're manufacturing at cost, so lack of profit isn't the issue there. Also, Oxford were considering open sourcing before Bill Gates stepped in.
It just seems like Bill Gates and others were convinced that the poors couldn't do it, although India isn't the richest, and yet The Serum Institute is the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world I think.
What happened to competition and consumers (governments in this case) being able to determine the best products?
One issue I can think of is regulation, if you have several versions of each vaccine that might have key differences and require separate studies.
India's big problem producing drugs is predatory patent laws.
That's what's confusing about all of those replies. Of course its difficult to manufacture it, but are they really saying that other phama companies wouldn't be able to replicate the process if the vaccines were "open sourced". I would think that having more companies producing the vaccines would be better so that way the pressure to produce the vaccines wouldn't be shouldered by just two companies. They're making the case for why the vaccine should be shared with other companies.
So fun fact, Oxford developed it and was intent on doing exactly that. Open source, produce the hell out of it everywhere.
Bill Gates decided it was better that they license it exclusively to AstraZenica.
https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine-oxford-makes-a-deal-with-drugmaker/
There is no punishment conceived by man that is enough for Bill fucking Gates.
Is there any open source covid vaccine from any country? Cuz it would be pretty funny if a mass produced open source vaccine developed by say, China or Cuba, were to sweep the world. Or if all of Latin America was reasonably vaccinated faster than the US
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Johnson and Johnson is a lot simpler too.