Page - 581 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

581International Trade, Intellectual Property, and Innovation Policy : Lessons from a Pandemic has the capacity to do independent clinical trials.6 And questions have been raised about Canada’s biomanufacturing capacity.7 It is plausible that Canada can overcome some of these chal- lenges with its current approaches to innovation policy. But we argue, instead, that the experience of addressing COVID-19 offers an oppor- tunity to jump-start structural transformations in Canada’s innova- tion system that would otherwise take decades to achieve. Canada’s most realistic route to develop and ensure access to vaccines, diag- nostics, and therapeutics is via international cooperation in open sci- ence. To accomplish this, Canada should rethink rather than abandon intellectual property as one tool of innovation policy.8 We recommend aligning domestic and international intellectual property strategy with a broader array of innovation policy levers to adjust the condi- tions underlying Canada’s biomedical innovation system. Access under Current International Trade and Intellectual Property Rules Researchers around the world have begun questioning the role of intellectual property in light of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. Analyses cover general intellectual property and public health developments in the first months of the pandemic;9 the coronavirus patent landscape and challenges related to “crisis-critical products”;10 intellectual prop- erty aspects of vaccines in the context of innovation law and policy;11 6. Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, Prescription Pharmaceuticals in Canada: Final Report (March 2015) (Chair: Kelvin K Ogilvie) at 7; “Strategic Planning Report: A Pan-Canadian Clinical Trial Strategy” (2018) at 12, online (pdf): Canadian  Clinical  Trials  Coordinating  Centre  <www.cctcc.ca/wp- content/uploads/2018/03/CCTCC-Report_Final.pdf>. 7. Nathaniel Lipkus, “Canadian Access to Coronavirus Treatment is Threatened by Weak Manufacturing Capacity”, The  Globe  and  Mail  (10 April 2020), online: <https:// www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-canadian-access-to- coronavirus-treatment-is-threatened-by-weak/>. 8. Jeremy de Beer, Richard Gold & Mauricio Guaranga, “Intellectual Property Man- agement: Policy Issues and Options” (2011), online (pdf): Genome  Canada  <www. genomecanada.ca/sites/default/files/pdf/en/Research_Policy-Directions-Brief.pdf>. 9. Ellen ’t Hoen, “Protect Against Market Exclusivity in the Fight Against COVID- 19” [2020] Nature Medicine. 10. Frank Tietze et al, “Crisis-Critical Intellectual Property: Findings from the COVID-19 Pandemic” (2020) Centre for Technology Management Working Paper No 2. 11. Ana Santos Rutschman, “The Intellectual Property of Vaccines: Takeaways From Recent Infectious Disease Outbreaks” (2020) 118 Mich L Rev Online 170.