Prices versus costs of production for molnupiravir as a COVID-19 treatment

Background Molnupiravir has been recently approved in the United Kingdom for the treatment of COVID-19 for showing promising survival benefits in clinical trials. This analysis will estimate and compare potential generic minimum costs of molnupiravir as well as observe countries eligible for pricing discounts as agreed by Merck and The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP). Methods Drug prices were searched for molnupiravir using active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) data extracted from global shipping records. This was compared with national pricing data from a range of low, medium, and high-income countries. Annual API export volumes from India were used to estimate the current availability. Trends of molnupiravir drugs prices were also evaluated for the last 6-month period. Mean daily COVID-19 diagnosis rates were calculated for the countries eligible for voluntary licensing. Results Molnupiravir can be generically manufactured at the very low per-course cost of $9.00. Over the past 6 months, prices of molnupiravir have fallen significantly, and when comparing reported international prices, we found wide variations between countries. Only 9% of diagnosed patients worldwide were in the countries eligible for voluntary licensing. Conclusions Prices of molnupiravir range from $20 to $750 per course. Only 9% of worldwide COVID-19 diagnoses are made in countries covered by voluntary licenses. Middle income countries not eligible for voluntary licensing may need to issue compulsory licenses to secure access to molnupiravir at affordable prices.

The Evolutionary Game Analysis and Optimization Algorithm of Electric Vehicle Cell Innovation Diffusion Based on a Patent Pool Strategy

A patent pool strategy was proposed for use in the electric vehicle cell industry to manage patent licensing disputes and litigation. How to promote EV cell innovation diffusion under a patent pool scenario is unclear. We introduced an innovation diffusion channel model comprising different players with patent licensing relationships and market competition relationships following evolutionary game analysis and simulation. We found the interlinked factors that influenced evolutionary stable strategies with a sensitivity test on all factors to identify the important and unimportant factors. To achieve the maximum return for the players, an optimization algorithm was introduced to find the maximum weighted object function. The decision and policy makers could focus on important factors such as improving the technology’s competitive advantages, delivering more profits to its licensees with reasonable licensing fees, and finding the best patent pool strategy with the support of the optimization algorithm to balance the competition relationships and patent licensing relationships between players.

Access to Covid-19 Vaccine: Patents vs. People?

Summary The article is looking into the issue of global equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines from the perspective of intellectual property rights, in particular patents. The discussed topics include instruments that could potentially facilitate access to patent protected health technologies (Covid-19 vaccines). Some of them are non-voluntary in nature, like the compulsory licenses in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement and others rely on the voluntary participation of the pharmaceutical industry, such as the C-TAP and the Medicines Patent Pool. The article also explores the controversial initiative regarding an “intellectual property waiver” proposed by a number of WTO members.