Compulsory licensing of trade secrets: ensuring access to COVID-19 vaccines via involuntary technology transfer

Abstract

On 30 March 2021, 25 heads of government and international agencies came together in an extraordinary joint call for a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response: There will be other pandemics and other major health emergencies. No single government or multilateral agency can address this threat alone. The question is not if, but when.1 As the world has been battling the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, this call reflects the gloomy reality of the challenges that this pandemic has brought to us and the inadequacy of the current system to deal with it. While the first enormous challenge of swiftly developing a vaccine against this coronavirus has been successfully overcome by several pharmaceutical companies2 and a number of vaccines are in the pipeline at various stages of development,3 the second, no less significant hurdle, is to manufacture the required number of vaccines and distribute them across the globe equitably and affordably. However, this latter hurdle has proven to be a serious challenge. It is estimated that around 11 billion doses are required to vaccinate 70 per cent of the world’s population.4 According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of 5 May 2021, more than 1.1 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally, but more than 80 per cent of those have been administered in high- and upper-middle-income countries, with only 0.3 per cent in low-income countries.5 It is argued that it may take several years for people in the lowest-income groups to be vaccinated.6 This problem, therefore, has raised a key question, i.e. how can we accelerate the production of COVID-19 vaccines and ensure their equitable worldwide distribution at an affordable price?.