Should Pharma Companies Waive Their COVID-19 Vaccine Patents? A Legal and Ethical Appraisal

Tammy Cowart (), Tsuriel Rashi () and Gregory L. Bock ()
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Tammy Cowart: Department of Accounting, Finance & Business Law, Soules College of Business, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX 75799, USA
Tsuriel Rashi: School of Communication, Ariel University, Ariel 40700, Israel
Gregory L. Bock: Department of Literature and Languages, College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Texas at Tyler, Tyler, TX 75799, USA

Laws, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Pharmaceutical companies, like many other types of companies, are incentivized to create, manufacture, and distribute new products, in part due to the legal protections of patent law. However, the tension between patent rights and the public good has been heightened as pharma companies developed new vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Wealthy governments paid well for vaccines and received ample supplies, while low- and middle-income countries struggled to obtain access to any vaccines. Some countries called for pharmaceutical companies to waive their patent protections for vaccines in order to facilitate the worldwide manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. This paper will examine the rationale of patent protection and patent waiver issues, then compare these concepts with ethical constructs and a Jewish perspective.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccine; patent waiver; Jewish ethics; duty theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D78 E61 E62 F13 F42 F68 K0 K1 K2 K3 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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