Author: Peter J. Hotez, Maria Elena Bottazzi, and Prashant Yadav
On May 5, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would support an international bid to waive intellectual property rights to vaccines for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, thereby ostensibly allowing other countries to ramp up production even of the sophisticated technology behind the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19. Many in the global health community and developing world welcomed the decision as a victory for greater equity in vaccine distribution, in which middle- and low-income countries are lagging far behind wealthy ones.
But the jubilation may be premature. The drive for intellectual property waivers originates in part from the world’s experience fighting the last war, against HIV/AIDS. Patent pools, intellectual property waivers, and other liberalizing mechanisms were urgent in assuring equity of access to lifesaving drugs during that epidemic. But these tools are better suited to medicines and other pharmaceuticals than to vaccines. Producing vaccines—particularly those as technologically complex as the messenger RNA (mRNA) inoculations against COVID-19—requires not only patents but an entire infrastructure that cannot be transferred overnight. The sharing of patents is an important and welcome development for the long term, but it may not even be the most pressing first step.
CIRSD Hosts Horizons Discussion with Professor Andrey Sushentsov on Russia’s Global Role and the Future of Multipolarity
Belgrade, April 2025 — The Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) hosted a special edition of its acclaimed Horizons Discussions series, featuring an in-depth conversation between CIRSD President Vuk Jeremić and Professor Andrey Sushentsov, Dean of the School of International Relations at MGIMO University and one of Russia’s most influential strategic thinkers.
Read more
Jeremić for China Daily: Collaborations urged amid turbulence
“You gotta wait for the rain to stop in order to fix the roof,” he said in an exclusive interview with China Daily, adding that Europe had been under anesthesia for decades. “Europe should have woken up many, many years ago. Sadly, it hasn’t,” he said, referring to Europe-US relations.
Read more
The Institutionalization of Terrorism: How the West Has Used Terrorism for Geopolitical Gain
An old African proverb says, “When elephants fight, the grass gets trampled.” The post-World War II period set a stage that reflected the established division of the world into two parts: the red, underdeveloped East and the blue, democratic West.
Read more
The Liberal World Order and De-dollarization: Can BRICS Offer a Stable Alternative?
The 17th BRICS Summit, entitled “Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security,” took place in 2024 in Kazan, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan. This was the first summit since the organization expanded a few months earlier and the largest in its history.
Read more
Author:
