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Dec 6, 2023

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1 Discussion: Pandemic Patents In 2021, Moderna stated that it had no plans to share its recipe for the COVID-19 vaccine (D’Emilio, 2021). Noubar Afeyan, co-founder and Board Chairman of Moderna, claimed that the best way to increase the global supply of the vaccine was by Moderna producing more. According to him, other companies’ production of the vaccine would not be helpful. Although concerns were raised that Moderna would not be capable of producing the volume of vaccines necessary, Afeyan claimed that these concerns were invalid. Although Moderna was unwilling to share its own recipe with other companies, the company did pledge to refrain from the enforcement of patent infringements on other companies developing their own vaccines (D’Emilio, 2021). This pledge was promising, as it opened doors for additional vaccines. However, Moderna was still withholding an already existing vaccine recipe that would not require extensive time to perfect and produce. The vaccine was not reaching as many people as possible. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist, reported in 2021 that because of the “inequitable distribution” of COVID-19 vaccines, the virus continued to spread with new variants (Padma, 2021). As of 2021, only one percent of people in low-income countries had received a dose of the vaccine, with over eighty percent of vaccines going to high-income and upper-middle-income countries. In 2022, Moderna pledged to “never enforce its coronavirus vaccine patents in selected low- and middle-income countries” (Furlong, 2022). However, this pledge only applied to ninety-two countries, and left out some middle-income countries. While the benefits of the pledge should not be forgotten, it only partially solved the problem at hand - extensive amounts of people still did not have access to a life-saving vaccine. On one hand, Moderna’s protection of the vaccine recipe is understandable. Ten years and

2 $2.5 billion were spent developing the platform that makes the vaccine (D’Emilio, 2021). It is expected for manufacturers of such a product to wish to protect their time and money. However, due to the severity of the pandemic, it is reasonable to also question whether Moderna’s decision to withhold its recipe was the most ethical decision. People’s lives were at risk due to the COVID-19 virus and if other companies had access to the recipe, said people might have been able to access the vaccine sooner. Afeyan claimed that Moderna was doing everything possible to help the world (D’Emilio, 2021), but how true was this claim? 2 Corinthians 9:6 states that “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” ( New International Bible , 1978/2011). It can be argued that by withholding its vaccine recipe, Moderna sowed sparingly for the sake of its own success. Additionally, Moderna’s pledge to not enforce coronavirus vaccine patents in selected countries seemed to come as a result of pressure from the public. 2 Corinthians 9:7 goes on to say, “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” ( New International Bible , 1978/2011). One company that has given cheerfully is Merck. The company’s antiviral pill was proven to reduce the risk of hospitalization related to COVID-19 by fifty percent (Zhang et al., 2022). Merck agreed to share its license, allowing this pill to be distributed across the world (Taylor & Parker, 2021). In contrast with Moderna, Merck’s goal was to expand the availability of the drug as well as lower the price and increase accessibility as much as possible for low- and middle-income countries. After conducting research on the practices of companies such as Moderna and Merck, the most ethical choice seems simple. As the CEO of a similar company, I would hope to follow the example of Merck. While both Moderna and Merck took actionable steps to ensure the safety of

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