Medicine companies, including those making the vaccines now approved in the US, are widely against the move, which they say will undermine the global response to the pandemic and not have the intended effect of speeding up production. The Trump administration opposed it to the WTO. House Democrats, however, say they have already collected nearly a hundred signatures on a letter urging Biden to change the U.S. position. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) And Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Also weighed. Those critics accuse the drug companies of prioritizing profit over lifesaving.
“We need to make the vaccines available everywhere if we want to crush this virus, and we need to make the public policy choices in the US and at the WTO that put patients first,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-) said. Conn.), One of the signatories on the House Letter and chairman of the powerful House Credit Committee.
The WHO has been stuck on the issue for six months, and so far the appeal of lawmakers and more than 400 health, labor, religious and other groups has not persuaded Biden to change the US position on the waiver. As the WTO works by consensus, all 164 members will have to agree to support the measure in order for it to take effect. But supporters of the waiver request believe that a US conversion in their direction will have a transformative effect on other opponents.
For the time being, Biden administration officials only say that they will make a decision based on their analysis of how effective the pardon will be. They also point to Biden’s promise to make $ 4 billion in contributions to COVAX, the international alliance to distribute vaccines to 92 low- and middle-income countries.
“The top priority of the United States is to save lives and end the pandemic, including by investing in COVAX and increasing vaccine production and delivery,” said Adam Hodge, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of the Attorney General. trade representative, said. “We are exploring every way to coordinate with our global partners and evaluate the effectiveness of this particular proposal in terms of the potential to save lives.”
The Trump administration’s opposition to the waiver was a rare example of solidarity with the European Union, which, along with Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and several other WTO members, is also renouncing intellectual property protection.
However, it is typical of rich countries, which offer large pharmaceutical enterprises, to face the challenges to intellectual property rights of poorer countries.
The block of mostly developed countries argues that strong patent protection was the key to the rapid development of the vaccines, and the issuance of a broad waiver would undermine the industry’s ability to respond to a future pandemic.
Top executives at 31 pharmaceutical companies said in a letter to Biden earlier this month that proponents of remission do not provide evidence that patents and other protections hinder the availability of vaccines, rather than the expected delay between product development and increased production to date. to meet global demand.
“Despite the huge challenge of expanding production according to new technologies, current estimates that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers will deliver around 10 billion doses by the end of 2021 are enough to cover the entire current global vaccination that is eligible for vaccine, to inoculate. “
At least two companies – AstraZeneca and Novavax – have allowed manufacturers in India, Japan and South Korea to manufacture their vaccines under voluntary licensing agreements.
But the World Health Organization, which supports the waiver of India and South Africa, argues that the provisions of the voluntary licensing systems offered by some patent holders are not sufficient to address the current pandemic.
The Vatican, which has observer status at the WTO, has also jumped into the debate. Referring to Pope Francis, the Holy See’s representative at a meeting of the WTO’s intellectual property council last month argued that the world should not allow market legislation and patents to take precedence over human health. not.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. Biden, who is the second Roman Catholic president in the United States and was photographed in office on his first day in office. sits in front of a photo of himself and the pope.
They also make an economic argument, saying that any loss of profits from pharmaceutical companies will be more than offset by the global economic gains that recover faster, as well as the number of lives saved.
The next meeting to examine the issue at the WTO will take place in two days in mid-April. This gives Katherine Tai, Biden’s newly confirmed US trade representative, the time to investigate the matter. If there is no resolution, Biden could confront the issue later this year, when G-20 leaders hold their annual meeting in October in Rome. Both South Africa and India are members of the leading economic group alongside the United States, China, Germany, France and the EU as a whole. India could also raise the issue when it attends the G7 summit in June as an invited guest.
Among the major developing countries, only Brazil is openly opposed to it, while China has said the waiver request is a good starting point for talks on emergency measures to be taken. India, a major manufacturer of generic medicines, claims the support of more than 100 countries for the proposal.
The new WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former co-chair of the alliance behind COVAX, has proposed a ‘third way’ solution to encourage vaccine patent holders to enter into voluntary licensing agreements with drug dealers across the world to increase the scale. increase production.
A group of four Republican senators led by Tom Cotton of Arkansas also urged Biden not to support the pardon.
‘Giving up all intellectual property rights will put an end to the innovation pipeline and stop the development of new vaccines or enhancers to address the variants of the virus. Nor will it increase the supply of vaccines because of the tremendous time and resources required to build new manufacturing. plant and acquire the knowledge to manufacture these complex medicines, ‘the senators wrote.
But proponents of the pardon say drug makers cannot be trusted when they say ten billion doses will be available by the end of the year. According to other estimates, it could be as late as 2023 or 2024 until there are enough vaccines to treat the world population, Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) Said.
“Time is also of great importance right now, because there are the variants that are evolving,” Schakowsky said. ‘The administration has made some moves in the right direction. But the real answer is to enable the manufacture of these vaccines. ”