By Ed Griffen and Pascale Boulet

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) and access to the fruits of science has always been tumultuous. The unequal distribution of messenger RNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic pitted patent holders against advocates of access to medicines in the latest confirmation of this truism.

In global health, rationing costs lives. One model estimates that more equitable access to COVID vaccines could have prevented around 1.3 million deaths worldwide.

But the pandemic also gave rise to a collaborative spirit, far from the protectionism that dominated the headlines. Hundreds of scientists in sudden lockdowns spontaneously took to social media to crowdsource the development of new antivirals to treat the disease. The results of their endeavors not only exemplify the potential of open science but also open the perspective for new ways of managing patent rights that favor, instead of hinder, access to medicines.

Read the viewpoint published in C&EN