Waiving IP Rights is Fine But Vaccine Can't Be Copied Without Tech, Manufacturing Secrets
- 3 years ago
In a 35-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Dr. Prabuddha Kundu said: “patents are not written as books for everyone to copy. They are written in broad terms not in detail”. Manufacturing, he added, involves tens of different things, each of which requires knowledge of the technical know-how and the process trade secrets developed by and fine-tuned by the inventor company. If these are not readily available then the mere waiver of IP rights will not lead to vaccine manufacture in an easy, simple, and straightforward way.
Dr. Kundu made a further very important point. He said a vaccine is a biological entity and not a chemical entity. Therefore, producing a vaccine is very different to the reverse engineering of HIV drugs, which was done so successfully by Cipla in the early 2000s. In fact, Yusuf Hamied, the Chairman of Cipla, has accepted this point. “Vaccines are a different ballgame”, he has said. “You can pick up the patent of a vaccine manufacturer but you still won’t be able to produce (the vaccine)”.
Dr. Kundu made a further very important point. He said a vaccine is a biological entity and not a chemical entity. Therefore, producing a vaccine is very different to the reverse engineering of HIV drugs, which was done so successfully by Cipla in the early 2000s. In fact, Yusuf Hamied, the Chairman of Cipla, has accepted this point. “Vaccines are a different ballgame”, he has said. “You can pick up the patent of a vaccine manufacturer but you still won’t be able to produce (the vaccine)”.