‘Monumental’: US backs waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines
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The Biden administration said it will back an effort to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines that has been proposed as a way to make the vaccines more available and affordable for developing countries.
In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the administration’s support for the so-called TRIPS waiver — a proposal being discussed by the World Trade Organization’s Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights that calls for temporarily suspending certain protections during the pandemic to allow more manufacturers to produce the vaccines.
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The proposal was written by India and South Africa and has been cosponsored by a number of other countries.
“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in a statement. “The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.”
Tai said the U.S. “will actively participate in text-based negotiations” about the waiver but cautioned that negotiations “will take time.”
“The administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible,” Tai said. “As our vaccine supply for the American people is secured, the administration will continue to ramp up its efforts working with the private sector and all possible partners to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution. It will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce those vaccines.”
The announcement garnered support, including from WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, who called it a “monumental moment” in the fight against COVID-19.
“I commend the U.S. for this historic decision for vaccine equity, prioritizing the well-being of all people everywhere at a critical time,” he said in a statement. “Now let's all move together swiftly, in solidarity, building on the ingenuity and commitment of scientists who produced life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.”
Others were critical of the decision, including former FDA acting chief scientist Luciana Borio, MD, who advised the Biden-Harris transition team on COVID-19.
“Sadly, this action won't help get more vaccines available to the world. There is no reason to celebrate,” Borio, who is vice president of technical staff at the nonprofit venture capital firm In-Q-Tel, tweeted. “We wouldn't have our amazing vaccines without U.S. innovative companies. These vaccines are hard to develop and manufacture, and our companies do that most efficiently.”
Perspective
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Intellectual property is property, and this unprecedented waiving of patent rights amounts to the expropriation of the property of the pharmaceutical companies whose innovation and financial investments made the development of COVID-19 vaccines possible. It is precisely in an emergency that we need the rights of the innovators to be respected. What incentive will these individuals have to continue innovating when their property rights can be nullified by a stroke of a pen? It is also the fact that the potential rewards patents provide give companies the ability to offset the costs of investments and facilitate the long-range planning and research necessary for vaccines.
That the companies involved received taxpayer funding for manufacturing, logistics, and entered into advance purchase agreements cannot mean the U.S. government can refuse to secure patent rights and defend the individual rights it was constituted to defend. Would they have entered into this agreement if this possibility was declared by the U.S. government at the inception of Operation Warp Speed? In the future, why would a company invest time and resources if, when their product becomes successful, it can basically be seized with their own government’s sanction?
There is no evidence that patents are responsible for the vaccine difficulties the world faces. In fact, without patents there would be no vaccines as they serve as the vehicle for the innovation that makes such products possible in the first place. What should be seriously discussed is the ending of all export restrictions, which never should have been enacted in the first place and created supply chain disruptions.
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