Err...it is a duopoly facilitated by the government. What can they do? Government is free to issue compulsory licenses, fix price ceiling, or allow other companies with their own drugs to enter the market. These two players are not doing anything legally wrong. Morally, it's a different argument.
Nobody can deny that the COVID situation in India is as alarming as it is appalling (particularly the way the Government of India has gone about handling it).
But you know what's worse? The entitlement that some exhibit. Let's not forget - the Government did not develop the vaccine. It's private property (which of course a vast majority of Indians, with their socialistic mindset cannot really appreciate). It's very easy to resort to empty feel good catchphrases like equity, and justice to coerce redistribution, but that isn't morally justifiable. The ends do not justify the means. There is absolutely nothing wrong with an entity that has done a productive deed to recoup its investment and profit. If you dislike it so much, by all means, donate your personal resources to whomsoever you please, and try to evangelize others to do the same!
Yes, given the demographic that forms the majority of the active and commenting/voting readership of LI, I'm sure this take on the matter will get downvoted, but frankly, idc.
One of the vaccines was developed at Oxford. An institution with centuries of public funding begins it. They wanted to place it in open source. However, Bill Gates stepped in and forced them (he has been a huge donor over the last twenty years) to hand it over to Astrazenica. This is the same vaccine which is being developed in India by the Serum Institute.
Vaccine developed out of predominantly public funds was placed into private hands for free.
The medical/academic world has been up in arms about it. Thoda akhabaar padha kijiye.
Boss, there's a difference between a university in which the research was undertaken being publicly funded, and the specific project being publicly funded. Huge fricking difference.
How do you think grants by private individuals/organizations in public universities function? Do you have it on any (let alone good, valid and reliable) authority that the source of funding for the COVID vaccine was either wholly or even substantially public?
Unless that's the case (and that's just a necessary condition, not a sufficient one), your argument simply doesn't carry any weight. Even if it is hypothetically publicly funded, given that most countries have this abomination called progressive taxation, the folks who pay higher taxes should be given preferential access and folks who pay no taxes should be given no access. Would that be a palatable solution for you? Guess not.
I do read - so your patronization is duly noted and dismissed as irrelevant. Try better next time.
Yeh vaccine ek minute mein nikal aata. The base research that goes into them is massive and is a ongoing project funded over the years/decades and more.
The government doesn't have anything on Poonawalla and as far as I see he can do whatever he likes (except for the recent grant for increased capacity production on which India most probably would have asked for preferred access) but Bharat Biotech, on the other hand, has received plenty from the Indian government including the Covid strain provided by ICMR without which Bharat Biotech wouldn't have been able to develop the vaccine.
The government really doesn't need to do anything about these two, but simply allow other players to enter the market. The reason the prices are getting high now is because the idiots who are taking decisions never placed the orders in time. If you ask me suddenly to do a year's job in a month, I'll have to charge high just to address the demand supply mismatch.
But you know what's worse? The entitlement that some exhibit. Let's not forget - the Government did not develop the vaccine. It's private property (which of course a vast majority of Indians, with their socialistic mindset cannot really appreciate). It's very easy to resort to empty feel good catchphrases like equity, and justice to coerce redistribution, but that isn't morally justifiable. The ends do not justify the means. There is absolutely nothing wrong with an entity that has done a productive deed to recoup its investment and profit. If you dislike it so much, by all means, donate your personal resources to whomsoever you please, and try to evangelize others to do the same!
Yes, given the demographic that forms the majority of the active and commenting/voting readership of LI, I'm sure this take on the matter will get downvoted, but frankly, idc.
Vaccine developed out of predominantly public funds was placed into private hands for free.
The medical/academic world has been up in arms about it. Thoda akhabaar padha kijiye.
How do you think grants by private individuals/organizations in public universities function? Do you have it on any (let alone good, valid and reliable) authority that the source of funding for the COVID vaccine was either wholly or even substantially public?
Unless that's the case (and that's just a necessary condition, not a sufficient one), your argument simply doesn't carry any weight. Even if it is hypothetically publicly funded, given that most countries have this abomination called progressive taxation, the folks who pay higher taxes should be given preferential access and folks who pay no taxes should be given no access. Would that be a palatable solution for you? Guess not.
I do read - so your patronization is duly noted and dismissed as irrelevant. Try better next time.
Magar tum vakilon ko yeh samajh kahan.
You don't have a clue what you're talking about!
Aug 2020. There is tons more on this online.
These two articles should provide some context
https://sflc.in/icmr-denies-covaxins-mou-and-funding-details-under-rti-act
https://scroll.in/article/993257/why-its-vital-for-indians-to-know-who-owns-intellectual-property-rights-to-bharat-biotechs-covaxin