Mr. Jim Clarken:

I will respond briefly and then ask my colleagues, who are more expert than I am, to reply.

We all know there is an investment required to develop medication and drugs but it is vitally important for us all to remember that the success of the Covid vaccine research and development is a reflection of public funding, not IP rights.

Public funding accounted for 97% of the research and development cost of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Moderna received $10 billion in government funding, including vaccine preorders. Very unusually, the risk and capital were front-loaded by the taxpayer, or all of us. As a result, this needs to be a public good. My colleagues might elaborate a little on that.