As Covid-19 cases explode across India, North African nations and other developing countries, there are renewed calls in Washington to waive intellectual property rights and force vaccine makers to share their formulas with the world.
While nearly 30 per cent of Americans have been vaccinated, in countries such as Tunisia, less than 1 per cent of the population has received even one dose of the vaccine.
You can't really reverse engineer a vaccine
On Tuesday Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California, made a plea on CNN for the administration to pressure Pfizer and Moderna to “share the vaccine recipe with over 100 countries who are willing to do the manufacturing themselves”.
“It is just wrong – morally wrong, strategically wrong – for them not to share the vaccine recipe that was developed with US taxpayer support,” Mr Khanna said.
Research costs
For decades, battles have been fought around the patents on lifesaving drugs, including those for HIV and cancer.
Drug makers claim that billions of dollars go into research and development of drugs, and they need to recuperate expenses through exclusive manufacturing and sales.
Critics say that kind of approach wreaks havoc on global health and stops developing nations from tending to their sick.
A group of about 60 nations, led by India and South Africa, have drafted a proposal to waive the World Trade Organisation's intellectual property rules, in a bid to make the vaccine locally, and, they say, save millions of lives.
While India boasts a strong pharmaceutical sector, much of the rest of the world lags behind.
Only eight countries in Africa produce or package vaccines, according to the WHO.
There are only three laboratories in North Africa, one of which is the Institut Pasteur in Tunis, where Dr Nizar Laabidi oversees production of the BCG vaccine, used to prevent tuberculosis.
The lab, which began producing the BCG vaccine in 1928, was refitted in 2004 to meet new health and safety standards, and is one of the leading BCG labs in the world.
"It's well known that BCG is one of the most complicated vaccines to produce," Dr Laabidi told The National.
His team of about 50 scientists, researchers and technicians oversee the production of the drug from cultivation to shipment.
Early in the pandemic his team began their own quest for a vaccine for Covid-19.
“We were looking at DNA and mRNA vaccines, as well as other types, but in the end we couldn’t get to clinical trials,” Dr Laabidi said.
Tunisia is suffering a severe second wave of infections, with daily new cases topping 2,000 and hospital intensive-care units almost full.
Yet slightly more than 271,000 Tunisians have been vaccinated since the country received its first doses six weeks ago.
Many Tunisians mistrust the vaccines and are hesitant about side effects.
Dr Laabidi said his lab could make one of the Covid-19 vaccines, in theory. But it would be an uphill battle.
“We’re a publicly funded institution and so we have a lot of problems with the procurement process," he said. "You can’t buy anything.”
Necessary updates to the lab and the raw materials could take months or years to procure.
After the lab was renovated in 2004, it took six years to begin producing vaccines again as they waited for supplies and personnel.
But updates to the facilities or finding qualified technicians are not the main obstacles.
Dr Laabidi says that even if the lab were completely refitted and fully staffed, the vaccine formula alone would not yield enough information for them to produce it.
“It would be very, very difficult and take a long time,” he said. “It would be more like producing a classic vaccine, so maybe 10, 15 years.”
Rachel Silverman, a policy fellow at the Centre for Global Development, said the patent wars drug companies have been fighting for decades are not the same for vaccines.
“There’s a big difference between a drug and a vaccine,” she said.
“A drug is a chemical compound and if you’re a competent generic producer, you can reverse engineer how to make that chemical compound.
"It’s only the patents that keep a producer from making and selling it.
“But you can’t really reverse engineer a vaccine”.
With hundreds of components and various steps and stages to stabilise lipids or extract mRNA, the vaccine production process, which is not included in the patent, would also need to be shared to make new production a success.
“Even the most advanced pharmaceutical companies, even if they have all of the state of the art equipment, they do not necessarily have this knowledge,” Ms Silverman said.
Technology transfers are something Dr Laabidi knows well. His team led a knowledge and technology transfer in Korea to help the country establish its own BCG lab.
The WHO has organised a special technology-transfer pool for Covid-19 vaccines, but thus far none of the makers have contributed to it.
Even if advocates persuade the pharmaceutical companies to share their recipes and technology for the vaccine, it might already be too late from an economic and epidemiological standpoint.
By the end of 2021, Duke University projects that 12 billion doses of vaccine will have been made at current capacity, enough to vaccinate about 70 per cent of the world’s population.
“The big question is, by the time the production line actually starts churning, will there be a market for whatever it's producing or will we already have enough vaccines at current capability?” Ms Silverman said.
Dr Laabidi agreed: “By the time we could make the vaccine, there will be other newer diseases we should be focusing on.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MEYDAN CARD
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The National selections
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Grand Slam Los Angeles results
Men:
56kg – Jorge Nakamura
62kg – Joao Gabriel de Sousa
69kg – Gianni Grippo
77kg – Caio Soares
85kg – Manuel Ribamar
94kg – Gustavo Batista
110kg – Erberth Santos
Women:
49kg – Mayssa Bastos
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THE SCORES
Ireland 125 all out
(20 overs; Stirling 72, Mustafa 4-18)
UAE 125 for 5
(17 overs, Mustafa 39, D’Silva 29, Usman 29)
UAE won by five wickets
Results
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Specs
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Torque: 1075Nm
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THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre, four-cylinder turbo
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
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- Duration: Can linger for days
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More on Turkey's Syria offence
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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3.
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
