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Some policy lessons from medical/therapeutic responses to the COVID-19 Crisis: A rich research system for knowledge generation and dysfunctional institutions for its exploitation

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  • Giovanni Dosi

Abstract

This note discusses the medical/therapeutical responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their "political economy" context. First, the very quick development of several vaccines highlights the richness of the basic knowledge waiting for therapeutical exploitation. Such knowledge has largely originated in public or non-profit institutions. Second, symmetrically, there is longer-term evidence that the private sector (essentially Big Pharma) has decreased its investment in basic research in general, and has long been uninterested in vaccines in particular. Only when flooded with an enormous amount of public money it became eager to undertake applied research, production scale-up and testing. Third, the "political economy" of the underlying public-private relationship reveals a profound dysfunctionality with the public being unable to determine the rates and direction of innovation, but at the same time confined to the role of payer of first and last resort, with dire consequences for both advanced, and more so, developing countries. Fourth, on normative grounds, measures like ad hoc patent waivers are certainly welcome, but this will not address the fundamental challenge, involving a deep reform of the Intellectual Property Rights regimes and their international protection (TRIPS Agreements).

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanni Dosi, 2021. "Some policy lessons from medical/therapeutic responses to the COVID-19 Crisis: A rich research system for knowledge generation and dysfunctional institutions for its exploitation," LEM Papers Series 2021/19, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
  • Handle: RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2021/19
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Giovanni Dosi & Luigi Marengo & Corrado Pasquali, 2010. "How Much Should Society Fuel the Greed of Innovators? On the Relations between Appropriability, Opportunities and Rates of Innovation," Chapters, in: Riccardo Viale & Henry Etzkowitz (ed.), The Capitalization of Knowledge, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
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    4. Gross, Daniel P. & Sampat, Bhaven N., 2023. "The World War II crisis innovation model: What was it, and where does it apply?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    5. Anthony D So & Bhaven N Sampat & Arti K Rai & Robert Cook-Deegan & Jerome H Reichman & Robert Weissman & Amy Kapczynski, 2008. "Is Bayh-Dole Good for Developing Countries? Lessons from the US Experience," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(10), pages 1-7, October.
    6. Cimoli, Mario & Dosi, Giovanni & Maskus, Keith E. & Okediji, Ruth L. & Reichman, Jerome H. (ed.), 2014. "Intellectual Property Rights: Legal and Economic Challenges for Development," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199660766.
    7. Ashish Arora & Sharon Belenzon & Andrea Patacconi, 2018. "The decline of science in corporate R&D," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 3-32, January.
    8. Massimo Florio & Simona Gamba, 2021. "Biomed Europa: After the coronavirus, a public infrastructure to overcome the pharmaceutical oligopoly," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(3), pages 387-409, September.
    9. G. Dosi & L. Fanti & M. E. Virgillito, 2020. "Unequal societies in usual times, unjust societies in pandemic ones," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(3), pages 371-389, September.
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    11. Nicola Bellomo & Richard Bingham & Mark A.J. Chaplain & Giovanni Dosi & Guido Forni & Damian A. Knopoff & John Lowengrub & Reidun Twarock & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2020. "A multi-scale model of virus pandemic: Heterogeneous interactive entities in a globally connected world," LEM Papers Series 2020/16, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dosi, Giovanni & Palagi, Elisa & Roventini, Andrea & Russo, Emanuele, 2023. "Do patents really foster innovation in the pharmaceutical sector? Results from an evolutionary, agent-based model," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 564-589.
    2. Maira Aguiar & Giovanni Dosi & Damian A. Knopoff & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2021. "A multiscale network-based model of contagion dynamics: heterogeneity, spatial distancing and vaccination," LEM Papers Series 2021/24, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.

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    Keywords

    Covid-19 pandemic; vaccines; Intellectual property rights; TRPS; innovation; public goods.;
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