The free market is often characterized by some as a Darwinian or Hunger Games-style survival of the fittest competition. But that’s seldom true. Take the Wall Street Journal headline this week:
Sanofi to Help Make Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine for U.S.
As the story explains, Sanofi has signed up to make as many as 200 million doses of its rival Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. The story notes that this news comes on the heels of drug companies Novartis and Merck also agreeing to produce their rivals’ vaccines.
Cooperation with competitors is more common than it is rare. For instance, Excel was first made by Microsoft exclusively for its long-time rival Apple back in 1985. It wasn’t until 1987 that Microsoft made it available on its own operating system, Windows.
Similarly, I wrote in National Review about restaurants cooperating during the COVID-19 pandemic:
Tableau, a Seattle-based software company, organized a virtual holiday party to support both its employees and the area’s struggling restaurant industry. Ethan Stowell, who runs more than a dozen high-end restaurants in the area, was asked to produce the 3,500 meals the occasion called for. He suggested that Tableau split the contract with his competitors and formed a coalition of 40 restaurants to deliver the meals.
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