Moderna’s Pledge Not to Enforce the Patents on Their COVID-19 Vaccine Is Worthless
The media cheered Moderna’s pledge not to enforce the patents on its COVID-19 vaccine. But vaccines like theirs are still protected by intellectual property laws designed to keep medical knowledge out of the public’s hands.
Empty vials of different vaccines by Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and AstraZeneca. (Christof Stache / AFP via Getty Images)
On October 8, 2020, the Cambridge-based biotech company Moderna did something curious. It announced that it was temporarily suspending patent enforcement around the vaccine candidate it developed in partnership with the US government. “We feel,” the company stated, “a special obligation under the current circumstances.”
The tone of regal magnanimity suggested Moderna was just happy to help, doing its part during a difficult time. As with its colleagues in the wider world of pharma and biotech, the company was broadcasting a message that profits and market position were the very last things on its mind.
Suspending enforcement around valuable intellectual property in the midst of a public health crisis appeared, at first glance, like a credible display of noblesse oblige, to be welcomed even if it carried a whiff of incense meant to displace the stink of recent corporate scandals. The media dutifully covered Moderna’s patent pledge as evidence of corporate social commitment in a time of crisis. The patent pledge was widely reported on the assumption that it would, as Reuters put, “allow other drugmakers to develop shots using the company’s technology.”
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