It'a quite legal to restrict exports of medicines. The UK holds
a list of medicines that cannot be exported that is updated weekly.
Here's what the law says;
Quote:
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The licence holder must ensure, within the limits of the holder’s responsibility, the continued supply of medicinal products to pharmacies, and other persons who may lawfully sell medicinal products by retail or supply them in circumstances corresponding to retail sale, so that the needs of patients in the United Kingdom are met.
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(
Regulation 43(2) of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012)
Things might only get sticky if countries either refuse to export to certain countries without a reason (trade sanctions for example) of they are hoarding beyond what s necessary to ensure public health.
We had a good call today on manufacturing capacity. Pharmaceutical companies tend to work at as close to 100% utilisation as possible. There is very little floor space and manufacturing equipment spare. To build new plant from nothing can take years. Even building a prefab plant takes a minimum of 18 months. It looks like, at least in the short term, that existing plant will need to repurposed for vaccine production. What plant and where will depend very much on what vaccine(s) work well.
If this is done, there will be shortages of other drugs which could have health implications elsewhere. As well as health implications, there could be lost sales implications for pharma companies and those costs might well be factored in to a vaccine cost at least in western economies. This is on top of development costs ($200-500m)