Covid-19 Vaccine Funders Urged to Make Drugmakers Share Work

Governments and other research funders may be missing an opportunity to help speed the development of coronavirus vaccines and treatments by not insisting that drugmakers share intellectual property, research data, and other information, some watchdog groups and patient advocates say.

As billions of dollars are given for pharmaceutical companies’ research into coronavirus medicines, the World Health Organization has encouraged funders to include clauses in their contracts requiring equitable distribution of Covid-19 medicines and publication of trial data. It’s joined advocates who say a failure to be proactive on property and data rights shifts the power to the drug industry.

The ...