As the race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus speeds up, the pharmaceutical industry is being careful to not set any dangerous precedent that may weaken their future intellectual property rights, a senior executive at IHS Markit said Thursday. .

The World Health Organization this week published an update on the potential vaccine candidates that are in development for Covid-19.

"That suggests that there is, as far as policymakers are concerned, an understanding that there could be potential weakening of intellectual property rights for a future successfully developed vaccine," she said, adding it "would be priced at a level that allows it to be widely used on a global level.".

Intellectual property rights and patents, which give exclusivity and price control, are fundamental to the pharmaceutical industry as they enable companies to undertake costly research with the promise of future profits. .

"I think currently the industry's preference has been not to set a dangerous precedent in terms of weakening intellectual property rights