RE:WIRED 2021: Stéphane Bancel on Scientific Patents and Innovation

To get innovation bringing products,

you need lot of investments.

If you look at just more than, as an example,

you know, we have had to raise over the years,

you know, up to 5 billion dollar,

before we had the pandemic.

And that's how we develop the technologies.

And a piece I think we need to be careful and thoughtful,

and it's an important societal distinction.

Which is your,

if you don't invest in technology,

because people can't get a return,

then the premise,

you will have no capital going into innovation.

And if you look at BioEnTech and Moderna,

those two companies have been in the losing money

for 10 years, losing a lot of money.

And the only reason that we could keep the light on

and doing the science,

which was important to be ready for this pandemic,

was because there was capital invested

with the prospect of making a return.

In this whole innovative award discussion with WTU on IP,

and IP access and IP waiver.

As I've said, first,

waiving the IP will not get one models

in the next six, nine months of [indistinct].

Because, there's no amount of factories

around the world waiting for making this product.

It's a new technology, but it's not capacity that exists.

And two, it sets a very dangerous precedent

for the next big healthcare issue,

which is if you basically waive patents,

biotech companies are going to have a very hard time

raising capital.

And if you cannot raise capital,

we will not have products.

We might have cool science in academia and in labs,

but it doesn't become product.

You don't have a solution for patients.