I found this report from Reuters interesting:
Pfizer Inc’s shipment of COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico this week includes doses made in its U.S. plant, the first of what are expected to be ongoing exports of its shots from the United States, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The vaccine shipment, produced at Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan plant, marks the first time the drugmaker has delivered abroad from U.S facilities after a Trump-era restriction on dose exports expired at the end of March, the source said.
The U.S. government has been under mounting pressure in recent weeks to provide surplus vaccines to other nations desperately in need as it makes swift progress vaccinating its own residents. Many countries where the virus is still rampant are struggling to acquire vaccine supplies to help tame the pandemic.
I think this is a good move and, indeed, it should have been started some time ago. I would support shipping vaccine to India as well.
At this point many are asking why Pfizer hasn’t licensed Indian manufacturers to start producing its vaccines themselves? some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical producers are in India. They certainly have the capacity. The answer is pretty simple. India, along with China, are the world’s heavyweight champions of pharmaceutical patent violation. Give Indian or Chinese pharmaceutical producers you processes and pretty soon you’ll find yourself in competition with them on your own inventions.
My point in mentioning this is not to criticize either India or China but to point out that practices have consequences and that includes intellectual property piracy. If you can’t be trusted, people won’t trust you. Who could possibly have known?
