Event Description
The rollout of effective COVID-19 vaccines is happening at a historically unprecedented pace. Manufacturing and delivering vaccines to some 7.8 billion people worldwide, however, has reignited tensions about the role of intellectual property in medicine. How do patent protections facilitate vaccine research and development? What is protected by vaccine patents? How might US and EU patents complicate international vaccine distribution? Should those IP protections be waived to facilitate vaccine distribution to poorer nations?
The program will begin with a brief overview of vaccine history and a virtual tour of relevant objects from the Smithsonian’s collections. Then the panelists will engage in a discussion concerning the ethical, commercial, and global health implications of vaccine patents, followed by audience Q&A.
Event Speakers
Please visit the event webpage for full speaker list.
Event Information
Free and open to the public; registration required. For more information, please visit the event webpage.
Hosted by the Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation at the Smithsonian Institution and the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property at George Mason University.
