A patent is where you publicly state how you're doing something (recipe, invention, etc.) and if you're the first person to do that, the government can give you a patent so that no one else can do the same thing for about 20 years. The idea is that if you're an inventor who put a lot of time and effort into making your invention, you get 20 years to sell it without any competition. At the end of 20 years, anyone can copy what you're doing. That's why new drugs are expensive and there aren't any generics until the patent expires.
To lose patent protection means that these vaccines can be copied and sold by other companies.
What remains to be seen is if these original companies have publicly stated what's in their vaccines and how to make them. If they haven't done that yet, they could just keep it a secret. That's what Coca-cola does with their recipe. They don't file for a patent so that no one can know how to make coca-cola.
There's a lot of wrong answers here.
A patent is where you publicly state how you're doing something (recipe, invention, etc.) and if you're the first person to do that, the government can give you a patent so that no one else can do the same thing for about 20 years. The idea is that if you're an inventor who put a lot of time and effort into making your invention, you get 20 years to sell it without any competition. At the end of 20 years, anyone can copy what you're doing. That's why new drugs are expensive and there aren't any generics until the patent expires.
To lose patent protection means that these vaccines can be copied and sold by other companies.
What remains to be seen is if these original companies have publicly stated what's in their vaccines and how to make them. If they haven't done that yet, they could just keep it a secret. That's what Coca-cola does with their recipe. They don't file for a patent so that no one can know how to make coca-cola.
The ingredients are public, just not the recipe. Here's the Pfizer ingredients:
The ingredients are mRNA, lipids ((4- hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 2 [(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.
https://www.cvdvaccine-us.com/recipients
Where do I pick up some mRNA?
The corner of Obamas lips?
Ewww
You could try the local YMCA
You're right.