Pharma Rivals Are Fighting Covid Together. Why Stop There?
Some of the world’s biggest drugmakers are making unusual deals to get more medicine to more people at a lower cost. Not a bad idea.
The urgent need for effective Covid-19 treatments and vaccines is causing a shift in drugmakers’ priorities.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg
Pandemics make for strange bedfellows and behavior in the pharmaceutical industry.
The world is relying on drugmakers’ expertise to get us out of the Covid-19 crisis — initially with treatments to help lessen the risks from contracting the virus, and then ultimately with a vaccine. The high pressure, enormous need, and global attention are leading companies to try new things on the fly. Just last week, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. signed a pact with its erstwhile rival Roche Holding AG aimed at substantially boosting supplies of a potential treatment for Covid-19; it even made some monetary sacrifices to do so. And that’s only the latest example.