Emilia vexler
05/06/2021 17:11
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 05/06/2021 17:11
What to understand: the
patent
gives the inventor of the vaccine an
exclusive right of use and commercialization
.
In other words, it is "restricted" to a license.
What can happen: if patents are released, vaccines go into
the public domain
and manufacturing laboratories could be increased.
It would no longer be necessary to make an agreement between states, vaccine manufacturers and producers.
That, in "an ideal world."
What happens: the reality is different.
If patents are released, there are several
preconditions
before "free" immunization.
Argentina is well positioned in the region to
eventually become a producer of vaccines. But not for this coronavirus pandemic. At least
not in the short term
. Brazil has been producing vaccines for 30 years and has not even started with
Sputnik V,
although it has agreed with Russia.
What you definitely need to know: the release of patents for vaccines does not imply the transfer of technology or that each country, including ours, is at the level of the "kitchen" necessary to produce doses against Covid.
The key to our "advantage" over Chile or Uruguay is that we already have
a part of the vaccine production chain in the country
: that of the active
ingredient
in
AstraZeneca
.
And it is worth clarifying that here the "easy" -but so far utopian- would be to produce "traditional" vaccines, of inactivated viruses.
Not the most complex, messenger RNA, like the Pfizer vaccine.
Argnetina and Brasis are well positioned before an eventual release of patents for the manufacture of vaccines against the coronavirus.
Daniela Hozbor, coordinator of the vaccinology subcommittee of the Argentine Association of Microbiology and main researcher at Conicet, explains this to
Clarín
.
Does Patent Release Solve Vaccine Shortage Problem?
"No.
Making vaccines is something complex.
It is not that you say 'the vaccine has so many viral particles' and that's it, you have the vaccine. Or you say 'it has such a quantity of genetic material', and you have it. No. There is a procedure , knowledge and controls that require that a country not only have the vaccine factory but also
the knowledge formed in these vaccine technologies "
, says Hozbor.
She is the number 1 in vaccines in the country and, as the teacher that she is, if she speaks, it is so that it is understood.
"You have to think of it (vaccines)
as (a cooking recipe)
.
"
You have to know how to cook.
And have the kitchen.
In the case of coronavirus vaccines, there are a wide variety of platforms.
Some are traditional - that of inactivated viruses - which respond to techniques known before the pandemic.
"With the release of patents from the traditional, it could have a better applicability in the factory of other countries, easier. Because
there is experience in that."
If patents are released, could Argentina be a manufacturer of covid vaccines? Hozbor's response lowers the level of anxiety. "
Argentina has very little of the complete production chain of a vaccine.
We have that of hemorrhagic fever, double bacterial fever and BCG. Afterwards, it only has stages of the production chain (of the rest of the vaccines)", the expert details . This means that our country
receives the active ingredients from abroad
, formulates and breaks it down. "It is not minor," says Hozbor. But not enough either.
"With covid, it is a question of having the entire production chain, from beginning to end, in the country, it is
a political decision.
It is what you want to achieve and, in fact, we already have the production of the active principle (from AstraZeneca) at mAbxience. Also with the agreement to produce Sputnik V (for the moment, it only started with the active ingredient being received, formulated and fractionated). And now also with Sinopharm and Sinergium. "
So, beyond the release of patents, for some of these "released" vaccines to be produced in Argentina, the
complete production chain of these doses
would need to be installed in the country beforehand
.
For the more complex vaccines, the path would be even more difficult, as it will depend on the complete transfer of technology to our lands.
If vaccines are released and Argentina does not have, as is the case now, the technology to produce them, would we continue to lag behind in the distribution of vaccines?
"It will depend on the
agreements that the State makes with those who produce vaccines,"
says the biochemist.
There is no estimated date on which this suitable infrastructure could occur in the country that allows the production of covid vaccines.
But Hozbor thinks ahead.
"If the synergy between released patents, local infrastructure and
know-how
occurs
,
the total production
would serve us for the rest of the vaccines
(again, like the flu vaccine, which usually runs out) and for the future in case another pandemic breaks out. . "
SC
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