![]() ![]() Governments could support these partnerships in other ways too: by providing information and infrastructure and offering preferential policies. Hence our focus on joint venture partnerships.ĬOVID is a global problem requiring an ‘all hands on deck’ approach and we believe financing for joint ventures should be provided by Global North governments, international organisations and host governments, as well as the pharmaceutical MNEs themselves. Moreover, as with an IP waiver, most of the tacit technological and managerial know-how in supply chain management cannot be codified and transferred through compulsory licensing.ĬOVID is a global problem requiring an ‘all hands on deck’ approach and we believe financing for joint ventures should be provided by Global North governments, international organisations, and host governments as well as the pharmaceutical MNEs themselvesĪnother alternative proposal, calling for the creation of a new COVID-19 Vaccine Investment and Trade Agreement (CVITA) could be useful in countering ‘vaccine nationalism’, but again it only favours developed countries with existing vaccine and pharmaceutical production capacity, and makes only marginal reference to developing countries. They only favour countries that already have productive capacity, as they require strong local technological capabilities to understand and effectively use the licensed technologies. However, current rules governing compulsory IP licensing are very restrictive. This obliges firms to share know-how in return for a licence payment. Joint ventures also offer advantages over other proposals that have been put forward, for example compulsory licensing of patents under the WTO’s TRIPS agreement. They can also tap into local knowledge in areas such as resources, markets, and supply chains significantly reduce political risk and, where they are public–private partnerships, integrate the private sector’s advantages in flexibility, innovation, and ability to deliver with the public sector’s strengths in mobilising resources and wide outreach. Unlike wholly foreign owned subsidiaries, they enable local staff and partners to gain technological and managerial know-how through training and everyday work interactions. Research has shown that joint venture partnerships with local firms are particularly effective vehicles for international technology transfer. ![]() In an article co-authored with Peter J Buckley of Leeds University Business School and Ines Hassan of the International Science Council in France, we suggest that the best way to facilitate this transfer of technology and knowledge and ramp up production is through the creation of joint ventures between global vaccine manufacturers and local pharmaceutical companies in the Global South, organised into regional hubs. It is this lack of knowledge, both tacit and codified, and production capacity that represents one of the most significant constraints to the supply of vaccines the world urgently needs. ![]() A waiver could not force pharmaceutical companies to share this. Vaccine manufacturing is a particularly complex process that, in the case of COVID, requires advanced technical know-how and manufacturing infrastructure. The best way to facilitate this transfer of technology and knowledge and ramp up production is through the creation of joint ventures between global vaccine manufacturers and local pharmaceutical companies in the Global South, organised into regional hubs.īut a waiver would be in no way sufficient to address the problem of supply. How can we get vaccines out to the world? Attention has focused on the need for a temporary waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights, first proposed, in 2020 by India and South Africa, to the World Trade Organisation (WTO). While the virus continues to circulate unchecked anywhere, it will continue to develop in new and potentially devastating ways. ![]() As of December 2021, just six percent of people in low-income countries had received at least one dose of the vaccine. The emergence of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant provides a stark warning of the consequences of our continuing failure to roll out vaccines equally across the globe. ![]()
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