–
The corona pandemic, with almost three million deaths worldwide, shows us how destructive capitalism is. Despite the gravity of the situation, human lives are being played off against profits. If we want to solve this crisis, we need democratic control of the pharmaceutical industry.
There is blood on the invisible hand of the market. Even if we now have vaccines against Covid-19, that does not mean that the pandemic is practically over. The virus will persist in those parts of the world where immunity is not achieved. The vaccine is not distributed on demand, but where it can be profitable. Even WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused vaccine manufacturers of focusing on the countries where “profits are greatest.”
Double rip off
A democratization of the pharmaceutical companies is long overdue. Although the development of vaccines for the most part by public money was financed, the proceeds will go to the corporations. Past research also took place with public funding and at state universities and research institutes. The vaccine manufacturers reacted hesitantly at first. They feared the risk that the SARS 2 virus, like SARS 1 a few years ago, could go away and render all investments worthless.
Patents as an obstacle
Once you have an effective vaccine, the next step in a properly planned economy would be to create the technical means to produce it in the required quantities. Cooperation should be the motto instead of competition. However, this is blocked by patents, which is particularly bold in this case.
Countries like India and South Africa have been asking for one for months Release of patents before the World Trade Organization (WTO). The application requires, within the framework of the TRIPS Agreement (Intellectual Property Trade Agreement) to remove the protection of pharmaceutical monopolies. For example, companies in the affected countries could produce vaccines locally. The US, EU, UK, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Australia and Brazil rejected the application immediately. The same thing happened at further meetings in November and December. Although the majority of member states (almost 100 out of 164) approved the proposal, it was ultimately blocked by the minority of rich countries. They deny that there is any problem with vaccine production and delivery in many countries.
Although the group Modern allegedly does not want to enforce his patents when it comes to fighting pandemics Doctors Without Borders shows that this is not enough: because the development and production of vaccines usually requires other types of intellectual property, such as specialist knowledge or trade secrets. The situation is not new; poorer countries are already familiar with these kinds of problems earlier: In the 1990s, when the WTO was founded, HIV infections skyrocketed in sub-Saharan Africa. In 1996, new therapies called antiretroviral treatment were developed in the United States. But the treatment did not benefit those who could not afford it. Although the continent of Africa had a much larger number of people infected with HIV, it took years for life-saving treatment to become available there. Non-generics cost about $ 10,000 annually around the turn of the millennium. The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed 12 million people in Africa from the effects of HIV / AIDS in just a decade, even as the death rate in the United States was falling dramatically.
Humanity instead of profits
History has proven many times that patents for medical treatments are not in people’s interests and are not a necessity. When the doctor and immunologist Jonas Salk developed a vaccine against polio that would help millions of people over the next few decades, he did not want to make a profit with it. In an interview in 1955, he answered the question who the patent belongs to with “Well, I would say the people. There is no patent. Could the sun be patented? “
Frederick Banting, the discoverer of insulin, did not want to profit from the patent and made it available for a dollar: “Insulin belongs to the world, not to me”. Unfortunately, this was of little use in the USA, where horrendous insulin prices (diabetics without insurance can cost $ 120-400 per month) can drive those affected to ruin. Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly adding minimal improvements that extend the patent for over 90 more years. In contrast to many other drugs, this means that cheap generics cannot be produced.
error in the system
The result of the years of “achievement” of the pharmaceutical industry is impressive: As with HIV, poverty will make it impossible for millions of people in the global south to be vaccinated against SARS-2 Covid-19. This will keep the virus from spreading and still remain a threat. The failure of the corporations is also evident in other areas: From the point of view of a company like Biontech/Pfizer and it is far from financially attractive to shareholders to ramp up production capacity so quickly that the whole world can be supplied in six months. A WHO-Plattform on which pharmaceutical companies can voluntarily share information on vaccine production and the necessary technology has exactly zero posts after months. The same applies to a UN platform with a similar purpose.
Democratization of the pharmaceutical industry
The corona pandemic is costing countless lives because we are dependent on a for-profit pharmaceutical industry. When masks are sold at absurdly high prices and are not affordable for many, this is not a fault in the system, but part of it. We could take our fate into our own hands. The focus should be on what the sick and the hospitals specifically need. Instead of the arbitrariness of the market, we need democratic planning. That is by no means impossible, the technical know-how of the workers and the research is available. The russian revolution can inspire us on our way there: In the midst of war and famine, the Bolsheviks managed to implement a more scientific, more effective and more democratic strategy in the fight against typhus than the richest countries today in the fight against Corona.
This post was made by Marina Käfer wrote and appeared in the left turn.
Subscribe to our newsletter:
–
