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by threeseed 1882 days ago
Garbage take.

No one with even half a clue thought that Moderna pledging not to enforce patents meant that they would just give away their IP.

And what’s missing in this unhinged rant is any nuance about how to allow for generic drugs whilst still ensuring pharmaceutical companies can afford to invest in increasingly expensive bets.
3 comments
ch4s3 1882 days ago
Not that I agree, because I don't, but I think the Jacobin position would be that government banks would bankroll the pharmaceutical co-ops who would freely share the process once it worked.
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threeseed 1882 days ago
But then we get nationalism and politics permanently intertwined with medicine.

As we’ve seen with the US and EU during COVID are exports and recipe sharing going to be banned if some cancer curing drug is discovered ?

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ch4s3 1882 days ago
Again, I don't agree with Jacobin.

We actually do see the US and UK sharing vaccine formulas and production techniques on limited basis. However, everyone is scrambling and hoarding lab equipment like pipettes which are in short supply globally. The storm in Texas interrupted global supply of petrochemicals used to make those plastics, COVID is slowing do production in SE Asia, trade weirdness has containers in all the wrong places right now, and in general demand is WAY up everywhere.

Fundamentally its a question of values, what do you think a nation state should do for its own people weighed against its obligations to the rest of the world.

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Mvandenbergh 1882 days ago
Sure but then why make the pledge in the first place?
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zokier 1882 days ago
Because it makes for good PR for very little cost?
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lr4444lr 1882 days ago
It's Jacobin Magazine. Putting complicated news stories into a procrustean oversimplification that produces a socialism/capitalism manichean duality is a substantial part of their reporting.

I suggest not taking it too seriously;it's just what they do.

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hackeraccount 1882 days ago
In other words - it's not about making an argument to convince anyone of anything; it's making an argument that will make people who already agree with you feel better about themselves.

Truthfully that takes a degree of skill and it even has utility but as you say - it's best to see it for what it is.

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