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Korea Joongang Daily | Kim Myung-ja President, The Seoul Forum for International Affairs; President Emeritus, The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies; Former Minister of Environment;
The invention of a vaccine against poliomyelitis has come into the spotlight amid the Covid-19 vaccine crisis. In 1955, American medical researcher Jonas Salk successfully developed a vaccine that could prevent the virus from causing the crippling disease of polio, known as infant paralysis as it mainly affected children. His development of the vaccine was timely as the virus developed into an epidemic at the time. In a TV interview with journalist Edward Murrow, Salk was asked who owned the patent on the vaccine. Without hesitation, he replied, “Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. This is … could you patent the sun?”
But today’s vaccine market has high entry barriers due to complicated science procedures and regulations, massive costs and development periods, and uncertainty in the market returns. Covid-19 vaccines came onto the market in just 10 months thanks to colossal government subsidies and exemptions to multiple clinical tests on the side effects. Since the United States announced a temporary suspension of intellectual property rights on the patents for commercialized Covid-19 vaccines, the move has drawn protests from European countries and China. The decision is now up to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and if 164 member countries agree, the IP on Covid-19 patents would be waived.
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