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Yes in fact, that's the core of what a lot of people have been wanting by trying to get an IP waiver from the WTO. You don't even need new factories, as there's tons of factories out there that are itching to make the various vaccines.


It was my understanding that the developing world doesn’t have the required infrastructure nor qualified workers to manufacture the complex covid vaccines. So the whole patent point is moot.


Your understanding is incorrect, hence the ongoing process for the WTO waiver. Even the mRNA vaccines aren't that crazy, it's a culture of e. coli that's been genetically engineered to produce the vaccines; the manufacturing steps themselves are pretty run of the mill bio reactor stuff with slightly more stringent temperature controls on the tail end. The non mRNA vaccines are pretty much equivalent to any other standard vaccine.


With an IP waiver, you make it less likely you'll have a vaccine for the next one, defeating the entire purpose.


No you don't; the vaccines were funded almost entirely with public money anyway.


Their manufacture was. The mRNA research was a huge private bet (after some companies had given up).


The largest source of Moderna's R&D funding was nearly $1B in grants from the US Government.




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