Opinion: The tension between public health and patents in the era of Covid-19
The Covid-19 pandemic, devastating as it is, is producing some triumphs of collaborative research and innovation, as everyone from the World Health Organization to national laboratories, pharmaceutical companies, and Facebook groups of engineers race to fight the virus. But lurking behind this remarkable work is a threat: Some individuals or companies may exploit patents to profiteer off the crisis and could slow these innovative efforts to a crawl.
In this time of crisis, lawmakers must be wary of patents and be flexible and proactive in using the many legal tools available to check their harmful use.
