​​Patents, and IP more generally, are the main reason that there is such a strong innovation base to work from to find solutions. Today there are more than 1,000 clinical trials ongoing, over 150 treatments being tested, and more than 120 vaccine projects - ft.com

Here's a good opinion piece from the Financial Times that examines the positive impact that IP is having at the moment, through innovation and support in the fight against Covid-19.

One of the big questions to be answered is whether pharmaceutical companies will put public health and welfare before their own profits. It's also been reported that AstraZeneca Plc will make as many as 30 million doses of coronavirus vaccine available to the UK by September and has committed to delivering 100 million doses this year. It's been reported that the UK will be the first country to get access to the vaccine should it be successful.

The collaboration of many different sized organizations during this pandemic is to be admired, but will the more skeptical social commentators put the larger, global pharmaceutical companies under the microscope later this year? The answer is, most probably.

No one has a crystal ball, but if IP innovation is driving toward measurable solutions for the greater good, then perhaps the public faith can be rewarded. Let's hope that's the case.

You can read the original article here.