The copy or mimicking of Covid-19 vaccines is an action that should be condemned in the old days. However, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic raging on in the world, killing tens of thousands of people daily worldwide, the replication of Covid-19 vaccines shouldn’t be taken as just plain Copy & Paste. Instead, it’s a gray area that should be treated in the same manner.
The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has been continuing for nearly 2 years, however, so far it has not shown any signs of cooling down or abating. In contrast, statistics from leading medical facilities around the world show that if current measures are continued, the Covid-19 epidemic is likely to never go away, but instead, the world will have to co-exist with this virus.
That prediction gradually gained more and more support around the world as the governments of several countries announced that they would no longer implement restrictive measures anymore. In contrast, they would ‘open their borders’ completely, moving to the state of ‘coexisting with the epidemic’. People are also encouraged to change their awareness about the pandemic, i.e. don’t try to be 100% immune, instead, if you got infected, find ways to not let the disease get worse or die from Covid-19.
On the contrary, some organizations think that such thinking is completely wrong. They condemn governments for giving up too soon and think that they have not taken the necessary measures to prevent the epidemic.
However, is it true that the governments of Fiji, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Singapore, etc. have not tried their best?
Singapore has one of the highest rates of vaccination against COVID-19 in the world with 82% of adults fully vaccinated. This number proves that this country is not giving up the war.
Instead, perhaps Singapore sees this war as an ‘unending war’ and the goal of reaching Zero Covid is just a dream that will never come true.
The reopening of the economy will inevitably lead to the risk that the country will embrace an increased number of infections. This is because even if Singapore achieves this goal, other countries will certainly not be able to achieve that goal at the same time, leading to an ‘unending war’.
However, can we call this an unending, or unwinnable war if we haven’t done everything we can to stop it?
Currently, the world is not using all the tools it can mobilize to fight against Covid-19. One of the most effective tools currently still limited by laws and international treaties is the right to produce and distribute Covid-19 vaccines.
What is the nature of vaccine replication?
Vaccine replication can be understood as having the right to produce and distribute vaccines freely, not bound by intellectual property laws.
In other words, the premise of vaccine replication is the exemption of intellectual property rights for the Covid-19 vaccine. Thereby, when the intellectual property rights to vaccines and other technologies to fight the Covid-19 pandemic are exempted, any organization in the world can have the right to copy the vaccine formulation and mass produce and distribute it to the people in the shortest time.
However, there may be a different interpretation of the term vaccine replication.
Accordingly, we will no longer understand vaccine replication as pure Ctrl + C but as a method of reversing the formula. Thereby, the scientists of organization B will buy a vaccine manufactured and marketed by company A (the doses of the vaccine are given to people around the world presently) and they will find a way to reproduce, create, reverse the Covid-19 vaccine to find the original genetic code, the secret formula to create that vaccine.
If successful, they will be able to create a vaccine similar to or completely ‘clone’ company A’s vaccine. It is completely legal to find a way to replicate the vaccine through this reverse technology. However, this is very difficult.
WHO supports replicating vaccines
Contrary to popular belief, the WHO – World Health Organization is an advocate of reverse vaccine technology.
Thereby, many sources said that WHO is supporting South African scientists to reproduce the Covid-19 vaccine of Moderna pharmaceutical company using mRNA technology, based on the publicly available components of the Moderna vaccine. If successful, this reversed vaccine will make it possible for poor countries that are not a priority for vaccine distribution to receive timely help, ensure people’s health, and reopen their economies, etc.
At the moment, WHO is coordinating the research, training, and vaccine production center in South Africa. In addition, WHO is also in charge of supplying raw materials for vaccine production.
Advocating reverse technology, copying vaccines is the only way WHO can openly support bringing vaccines to poor countries, as efforts to call on pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer to share technology have come to a standstill.
“What we’re doing right now is for Africa. We can’t keep looking to the great powers,” said Emile Hendricks, biotechnologist at Afrigen Biologics and Vaccines, the company behind the effort to replicate the Moderna vaccine.
“This is the first time we’ve had to go this far because the need is so urgent and the technology is so new,” said Martin Friede, WHO vaccine research program coordinator and assistant to the Cape Town research center.
Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the world is being “held hostage” by Moderna and Pfizer.
Vaccines using the two companies’ mRNA technology are said to be highly effective in preventing Covid-19, but the supply from Pfizer and Modern has always been the subject of controversy. The two pharmaceutical companies are accused of prioritizing vaccines only for rich countries while making poor countries wait too long.
Because Moderna received huge financial support from the US government during the vaccine development phase, President Biden has repeatedly asked Moderna to expand production to increase supply to developing countries.
“The US government has played a very important role in turning Moderna into the company it is today,” said David Kessler, program manager for the US Covid-19 vaccine development program.
Still, Mr. Kessler did not say how far Washington would go in its efforts to pressure Moderna or whether President Joe Biden could get the pharmaceutical companies “in line.”
Many other experts believe that recreating vaccines from publicly available ingredients is the only way to address vaccine distribution inequality, especially with the proposed Intellectual Property exemption for Covid-19 vaccines is nowhere near reaching the end goal.
Will countries oppose the proposal or will pharmaceutical companies stand in the way of WHO’s vaccine replication efforts?
The rapid production of a Covid-19 vaccine in just 2 years after the outbreak was unprecedented in history. Likewise, the fact that WHO despite everything, openly supports the reproduction and copying of the Covid-19 vaccine are also unprecedented.
While it is legal to recreate vaccines through reverse engineering, commercializing the vaccine is another matter.
Clearly, WHO replicates the vaccine is not only to find the formula, but they will use that formula to mass-produce the vaccine and distribute it throughout Africa and around the world, especially the poor countries that are not prioritized to have access to the vaccines.
Thereby, such mass distribution will progress to the commercial stage and may lead to disputes with Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies.
Intellectual property rights to vaccines are still controversial. In this regard, Moderna said it will not pursue legal action against a company that infringes its patent rights with its vaccines, but Moderna also has no intention of helping any company create vaccines using mRNA technology.
Noubar Afeyan, President of Moderna, said the pharmaceutical company had decided to expand production to meet the needs of the world market, instead of technology transfer. Moderna says that the company expects to produce billions of doses of vaccines by 2022.
“Within six to nine months, the most reliable way of delivering a high-quality vaccine is that we will produce it ourselves,” Afeyan said.
Zoltan Kis, an expert on mRNA vaccines at the University of Sheffield, thinks that replicating Moderna’s vaccine is “doable”, but it would be much easier if Moderna accepted to share the technology.
You can see a list of International IP firms here.