Ideas labIP History

COVID edition's key dates

By Andrés Ruiz | 16-Mar-2023

On March 11, 2020.

World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic. Some brands like Clorox or Reckitt Benckiser experimented an unprecedented sales growth. Other brands like Ford, 3M or GE repurposed their production to manufacture medical goods or equipment while some fashion brands as Ralph Lauren, DKNY, or Prada, donated money or medical garments to health systems.

On March 19, 2020.

California becomes the first state to issue a stay-at-home order, mandating all residents to stay at home except to go to an essential job or shop for essential needs. The order also instructs healthcare systems to prioritize services to those who are the sickest.

On April 11, 1899.

The U.S. patent 622 848 A was granted to Letitia Mumford Geer for a syringe configured to enable a single-handed operation, a revolutionary development for the time. It represents an antecedent for modern syringes.

On April 2020.

BioNTech started the clinical trials of its vaccine -Comirnaty- partnering with Pfizer as manufacturer partner, these trials derived on the first patent application (WO 2021/213924 A1) filed by the company for the coronavirus vaccine on April 22, 2020.

On January 12, 2020.

The Sars-CoV-2 genome was uploaded to GenBank, and later, within the period from January 27 to April 22, 2020 a stunning amount of twelve different companies/entities claimed the Sars-CoV-2 spike protein with the 2P mutant in several patent application. Among the companies claiming it were Novavax, Moderna and BioNTech.

On May 17, 1796.

Edward Jenner created the smallpox vaccine, the world’s first vaccine, by inoculating James Phipps, an eight-year-old son of his gardener, with scraped pus from cowpox blisters of the hands of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox. Even though the procedure resulted in some fever and uneasiness in the young patient, it achieved immunization. Thanks to Jenner’s invention, human immunization from several diseases such as SARS-CoV-2 is possible.