Health Experts Say Expanding Vaccine Access Requires More Than Patent Waivers
D.C. Health Nurse Manager Ashley Hennigan fills a syringe with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine during a walk-up clinic at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts outdoor Reach area on May 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Biolyse Pharma Corp., which makes injectable cancer drugs, was gearing up to start making generic biologic drugs, made from living organisms. Then the pandemic hit.
Watching the covid death toll climb, the company decided its new production lines and equipment could be converted to making vaccines for poorer countries without the means to do so.
Covid-19
Can Pfizer and Moderna End the Pandemic by Sharing Their Vaccine Designs? It’s Not that Simple
Feb 19, 2021 12:03 PM By Kaiser Health News Could Pfizer and Moderna speed up vaccine distribution by sharing their technology? AFP / Ina FASSBENDER
by Samantha Putterman, PolitiFact
“Pfizer and Moderna could share their design with dozens of other pharma companies who stand ready to produce their vaccines and end the pandemic.” Feb. 3 in a Facebook post
This story was produced in partnership with PolitiFact.
Vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna earned praise for creating highly effective covid-19 vaccines in record time. But are they inadvertently hurting the public by not sharing their technology with other pharmaceutical companies to help speed up vaccine manufacturing and distribution?
By Liz Szabo, Sarah Jane Tribble, Arthur Allen and Jay Hancock
Kaiser Health News/TNS
Americans are dying of COVID-19 by the thousands, but efforts to ramp up production of potentially lifesaving vaccines are hitting a brick wall.
Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are running their factories full tilt and are under enormous pressure to expand production or collaborate with other drug companies to set up additional assembly lines. That pressure is only growing as new viral variants of the virus threaten to launch the country into a deadlier phase of the pandemic.
President Joe Biden has said he plans to invoke the Cold War-era authority of the Defense Production Act to provide more vaccines to millions of Americans. Consumer advocates - who had called for Donald Trump to use the Defense Production Act more aggressively as president - are now asking Biden to do the same.
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President Biden has said he plans to invoke the Defense Production Act to provide more COVID vaccines, but forcing companies to gear up production won’t provide much-needed doses anytime soon.
Americans are dying of COVID-19 by the thousands, but efforts to ramp up production of potentially lifesaving vaccines are hitting a brick wall.
Vaccine makers Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are running their factories full tilt and are under enormous pressure to expand production or collaborate with other drug companies to set up additional assembly lines. That pressure is only growing as new viral variants of the virus threaten to launch the country into a deadlier phase of the pandemic.