Advocates call on US to use vaccine patent to boost global access

A government patent on tech used in mRNA COVID vaccines could be an ‘important policy tool’ to boost production, activists and academics say.

A group of academics and activists are calling on the United States government to make sure an upcoming patent for technology at the heart of several coronavirus vaccines is used to increase access to the inoculants globally. A patent is expected to soon be issued for a particular form of molecular engineering developed by US government scientists that is currently used by five manufacturers of mRNA coronavirus vaccines. The category of vaccine uses synthetic mRNA to trigger human cells to make a harmless spike protein found on the coronavirus, prompting an immune response that inoculates an individual from actual infection. Other forms of vaccines typically use the weakened or inactivated virus.