How to think about vaccines and patents in a pandemic

WITH ANYIPIPIPIP luck, the world will be awash in covid-19 vaccines by the end of the year. For now, though, it is not, and of the billion or so doses that have been produced the vast majority have been administered in richer countries. Deaths, by contrast, are increasingly concentrated in poorer ones, like India, where only about nine in every 100 people have been jabbed, compared with 64 in America. Some governments are floating radical options to remedy the mismatch. India and South Africa, for instance, propose that members of the World Trade Organisation waive intellectual-property () protections for covid-fighting technologies, including vaccines. Some in the rich world are warming to the idea; in America, ten Democratic senators recently urged President Joe Biden to back it. Drugmakers, however, warn that it would deal a crippling blow to innovation. Even though protections are not a big constraint on vaccine production today, the experience of covid-19 suggests that a re-examination of rights in the context of health emergencies is overdue.The economic argument for protections seems compelling enough. Innovation is costly and risky. Pharmaceutical companies invest heavily in drug development with no guarantee of success. If other firms could freely copy a newly discovered treatment, then its price would quickly fall to the marginal cost of production, leaving the innovator unable to cover the costs of development. A short-term monopoly on production granted to innovating firms is needed to make the upfront investments economically worthwhile. Patents provide this protection.