Covid Vaccine Waiver Deal Threatens Investment for Future Crises

A global agreement for waiving Covid-19 vaccine patent protections could endanger future pandemic responses while doing little to address current access to doses, according to critics of the plan.

The World Trade Organization last week approved a deal to loosen intellectual property protections that many policy professionals say will shatter investment and innovation incentives for drugmakers to meet the needs of major health crises. The deal was a blow to vaccine makers such as Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., which fought to keep the current framework that enabled them to produce life-saving vaccines in record time.

“Anyone with a ...