Moderna Inc. is the only manufacturer of an approved COVID-19 vaccine that has publicly committed to not enforcing its vaccine patents. The company, which received $955 million in U.S. government funding to develop its vaccine, says it will waive enforcement rights and license its intellectual property “upon request” in order to help end the pandemic “as quickly as possible.”
Pfizer, co-developer of the other vaccine available in the U.S., has said that it can’t commit to a “one-size-fits-all model” of patent sharing. Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, have so far enlisted at least two other European drug makers, Novartis and Sanofi, to help meet strong global demand.
AstraZeneca, which developed its COVID-19 vaccine with Oxford University, has outlined plans to distribute 2 billion doses of its vaccine through various partners including the Serum Institute of India.