COVID-19 Trade Secrets and Information Access: An Overview

Abstract

The unprecedented COVID-19 (COVID) virus has brought to the forefront many challenges associated with exclusive rights, information sharing, and innovation. How do we get effective diagnostics, treatments and vaccines quickly and safely to the public? More specifically, how do we ensure that sufficient quantities are produced, that health products are affordable, and that they are equitably distributed globally? Among many challenges on the road to this outcome is the difficult question of how to handle trade secrets, namely, information that is valuable because others do not know it.

The most famous trade secret is the Coca-Cola formula, but trade secrecy spans a shockingly broad range of critical and life-saving information. Indeed, trade secrets are everywhere in the battle to defeat COVID, from clinical data to pharmaceutical manufacturing processes. For the public at large, COVIDtrade secrets raise two primary issues: (a) When do you have a COVIDtrade secret, and (2) Should access to that trade secret extend to competitors, civil society groups, and/or the public? Both are challenging questions, and the below presents a general overview of the framework for addressing each question.

Keywords: COVID, trade secrets, innovation, TRIPs, pharma, vaccines

JEL Classification: I10, K00