If drug companies use public funds they must make their finds available to all | Kenan Malik

The hunt for a coronavirus vaccine has led to refusals to share research

It's tragic that we won't have a vaccine ready for this epidemic," Peter Hotez told a US congressional committee in March. Tragic, because we could possibly already have had one.

Hotez is director of the Center for Vaccine Development at the Texas Children's Hospital. In 2016, he and his team developed a vaccine for Sars-1, the virus that first appeared in China in 2003. Today's coronavirus, Sars-Cov-2, Hotez observes, is about 80% similar [to Sars-1]". But by the time he developed the vaccine, Sars was no longer a public health issue and nobody was interested in funding the work. Hotez is now working to repurpose our Sars-1 vaccine to fight Sars-2". But had investments been made previously, we potentially could have [had] a vaccine ready to go now".