Pooling Patents to Speed Virus Treatments More Logical Than Easy

As the SARS virus spread around the world in the early 2000’s, researchers agreed to pool their patent rights to help find vaccines and treatments. Only sorting out the details took so much time that the outbreak was contained before the project could be finished.

The concept of patent pools as a means to address a health crisis has been revived as a way to bring together companies, universities, and others to speed development of Covid-19 treatments and medical products.

But the SARS project highlights some of the challenges in creating patent pools to address a pandemic, legal scholars say. ...