This could go in existing threads but I'll start a dedicated one. Through work, I have contacts with various people who work indirectly for Big Pharma. In various conversations we've established that most of them are against the idea of relaxing patent agreements, basically (though this is usually unstated) because of pure profit motives, but also (which is somewhat more convincing) because they claim that if the big private companies didn't do the research (and there are various competiing companies who maybe - maybe - raise the bar re the efficiency of new vaccines due to the very competition, whereas something more publically or centrally controlled may not have the breadth of knowledge nor the sheer will to commit funds to achieve similar results).
Because this is a global pandemic, I'm all in favour of doing anything to habilitate vaccines for all. And really, why not free vaccines for all against any disease, virus etc.? But in the short and medium term, Big Pharma has the technical expertise and the research facilities, so how to deal with this?
Any opinions appreciated.
Because this is a global pandemic, I'm all in favour of doing anything to habilitate vaccines for all. And really, why not free vaccines for all against any disease, virus etc.? But in the short and medium term, Big Pharma has the technical expertise and the research facilities, so how to deal with this?
Any opinions appreciated.
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