Categories
News

What We’re Reading

Here you’ll find a list of articles recently shared within our Labs and relevant to the Free The Vaccine campaign. We hope this can be a resource for those in our Labs as well as outside!

Why And How To Free The Vaccine

  1. A coronavirus vaccine should be for everyone, not just those who can afford it
    • March 3, 2020: This piece in STAT News by Duke University professor Gavin Yamey lays out why we cannot allow the COVID-19 vaccine to be monopolized.
  2. To end this pandemic we’ll need a free vaccine worldwide
    • April 15, 2020: Gavin Yamey outlines a plan in TIME Magazine for how a vaccine could be made available around the world and free at the point of care.
  3. COVID-19: time to plan for prompt universal access to diagnostics and treatments
    • April 16, 2020: This article in The Lancet explains how an intellectual property pool could be used to ensure access worldwide, supporting the proposal made by Costa Rica.
  4. How to develop a COVID-19 vaccine for all
    • April 27, 2020: Mariana Mazzucato, University College London professor, and Els Torreele, Executive Director of the Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) Access Campaign, explain how specific intellectual property, manufacturing, and procurement policies can ensure equitable access to a vaccine around the world.

How Patents Can Hurt Access to Coronavirus Vaccines and Treatment

  1. Bad Science
    • June 1, 2014: This article in Jacobin Magazine explains how the Bayh-Dole Act has been used to privatize publicly-funded academic research, to the detriment of patients and the quality of science overall.
  2. We’ll find a treatment for coronavirus—but drug companies will decide who gets it
    • April 15, 2020: In The Guardian, access to medicines experts Achal Prabhala and Ellen ‘t Hoen explain how patent thickets could restrict access to the most promising treatments for coronavirus.
  3. Patents vs. The Pandemic
    • April 23, 2020: Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, economics professor Arjun Jayadev, and access to medicines advocate Achal Prabhala explain why patent reform is necessary to combat the pandemic.

How Close Are We To A Vaccine Or Treatment?

  1. How long will it take to develop a coronavirus vaccine?
    • March 8, 2020: A New Yorker article discussing the leading projects in vaccine development.
  2. The COVID-19 Vaccine Development Landscape
    • April 9, 2020: A piece in Nature analyzing the most promising candidates for a vaccine.
  3. Data on Gilead’s remdesivir show no benefit for coronavirus patients
    • April 23, 2020: An article in STAT News on the leaked data about remdesivir’s efficacy as a coronavirus treatment.
  4. How long will a vaccine really take?
    • April 30, 2020: An interactive piece in the New York Times on how long vaccine development could take, and how this period could be shortened.

Why Can’t We Just Count On An Affordable Vaccine (Or On Donations)?

  1. A not-for-profit vaccine from Johnson & Johnson? Not so fast.
    • April 28, 2020: This post explains why pharmaceutical company claims of a “not-for-profit” vaccine are misleading.
  2. Why vaccine donations don’t solve the pricing problem
    • October 10, 2016: This post from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders explains why drug and vaccine donations are not a substitute for measures that can actually lower prices.
  3. Will Gilead price its coronavirus drug for public good or company profit?
    • May 6, 2020: This article summarizes some of the arguments around pricing for the potential coronavirus treatment, remdesivir.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

[mc4wp_form id=”670″]