As India’s second wave of Neocon outbreaks continues to worsen, Washington has yet to commit to pushing for exemptions from intellectual property rights related to Neocon, with supporters and opponents in the United States splitting hairs. Supporters argue that exempting vaccine intellectual property rights would help the vaccine be distributed fairly around the world. Opponents, on the other hand, say that exempting patent protection would be tantamount to ceding the vaccine’s development technology to China.
On Monday (May 3), U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai held an online meeting with WIPO Director General Daren Tang. The two sides discussed ways to increase vaccine production and the role of intellectual property in responding to the new crown outbreak.
According to a press release issued by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Daki and Tang exchanged views on the specific challenges facing developing countries, as well as on certain provisions of the proposed TRIPS exemption.
Dyche reiterated that the Biden Administration’s current top priority is to save lives and end the new pandemic in the United States and around the world. The two sides also discussed how the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization and the World Health Organization could work more closely together on a trilateral basis.
Earlier, an official from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative also told Voice of America that the United States is working with global partners to explore pragmatic and effective measures to rapidly increase production and equitable distribution of the vaccine.
The Biden administration is in a dilemma over whether to exempt intellectual property related to the new coronavirus. Washington has yet to commit to proposals by India and South Africa to exempt certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). White House Press Secretary Chuckie said the overall goal of the United States is to provide the international community with as much supply as possible, and to do so in a cost-effective manner.
Public Health Expert: U.S. Should Support New Crown Vaccine IPR Exemption
Back in October of last year, India and South Africa took the lead in proposing that intellectual property rights related to the new crown virus should be temporarily opened up in light of the global situation of the new crown epidemic; however, this proposal was opposed by many wealthy countries.
Following the second wave of the New Coronavirus outbreak in India, the Biden administration began considering a push for an exemption to intellectual property rights for the New Coronavirus vaccine. The White House’s relenting was due to pressure from the public health community, as well as from congressional Senate Democrats.
Ten Democratic senators in the U.S. Senate, recently sent a letter to President Biden urging the White House to allow local production of the vaccine in countries around the world in order to accelerate the widespread availability of the New Crown vaccine and treatment and reduce unnecessary deaths. The senators argue that an exemption to intellectual property rights for the new crown drug is necessary to help increase vaccination of people in poor countries and ultimately achieve the goal of ending the epidemic globally.
U.S. public health experts have also called on the White House to support a waiver of the Covid vaccine IP waiver, which they believe is the only way to ensure equitable global distribution of the Covid vaccine and is also in the national interest of the United States.
Richard Ebright, a professor of chemistry and biology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, told the Voice of America that Washington should absolutely support and pursue a waiver of the New Coronavirus vaccine IP.
“From a public health perspective, and from a global diplomacy perspective, it is in the national interest of the United States to declare an exemption to the vaccine IP. It’s also the right thing to do from a basic ethical and basic human rights perspective,” Ebright said.
Lawrence Gostin is a professor of health law at Georgetown University School of Law. Gostin agrees with this position. He believes that the U.S. government should support an exemption to the intellectual property rights of the New Crown vaccine; because such an exemption is supported by the vast majority of countries in the world, there is a good reason for doing so.
We are in an unprecedented global emergency, and we must ensure that vaccines and other medical technologies are shared fairly with countries around the world,” Gostin told Voice of America. This will help avoid more humanitarian crises in the future. It is also in our national interest to stop the spread of the virus to prevent new and related variants.”
Rutgers University’s Ebright also told Voice of America that even an intellectual property exemption for the New Crown vaccine would not mean that enough vaccine could be produced immediately to save India from the current outbreak crisis.
“An IPR exemption for the vaccine, by itself, would not immediately produce enough vaccine to immunize 7.5 billion people; but it would accelerate the process, and by doing so, it would accelerate the process of ending the pandemic and returning to normalcy,” Ebright said.
Why oppose the U.S. IP exemption for the new crown vaccine?
After India was caught in the second wave of the New Crown outbreak crisis last month, the White House had promised to provide New Delhi with needed assistance immediately. Some analysts even say that the White House’s “Four-Party Vaccine Partnership” program, which was proposed in March, is coming in handy: not only will it help with the Indian outbreak, but it will also help consolidate Washington’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region in dealing with Beijing.
Meanwhile, the Indian outbreak has shocked the international community, with many countries, including India and South Africa, pushing for exemptions to the intellectual property rights of the new vaccine and drug.
Analysis suggests that the White House has been slow to make up its mind to push for a New Crown vaccine IP exemption because the Biden administration has faced strong opposition from drugmakers and interest groups. U.S. drugmakers say an IP exemption for the New Crown drug would cede the technology to China and Russia, aiding Beijing and Moscow’s vaccine diplomacy.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware), a close ally of President Biden, also opposes the U.S. push for an IP exemption for New Crown drugs.
Speaking at a conference at a Washington think tank last week, Sen. Coons said the waiver risks costing the U.S. the private sector investment and research and development that is critical to medicine at this moment, to breakthrough vaccines, to breakthrough medical diagnostics.
On the other hand, U.S. NGOs that advocate for innovation and intellectual product protection are opposed to breaking the protection of IP for new crown drugs. Jaci McDole is a senior analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.
McDole told VOA that the U.S. should not support a “trade-related intellectual property rights” exemption because it would not achieve the goals of timely access to affordable medical products, including vaccines and medicines, and expanding research, development, manufacturing and supply of critical medical products needed to combat the new crown epidemic.
“The exemption also does not provide the means for safety and quality control. Intellectual property is not a barrier in addressing the needs of the new crown epidemic, so an exemption would be inappropriate,” she said.
In McDowell’s view, these pharmaceutical products are very complex chemical formulations that require specialized equipment and raw materials. Given the recent surge in counterfeiting of new coronavirus vaccines, therapeutic drugs, personal protective gear and other products, it is important to maintain quality control within the supply chain.
She told Voice of America that there is no way to protect the supply chain and control quality if counterfeiters or ill-equipped manufacturers invade an already limited supply chain and put counterfeit or substandard products on the market. That would only further harm those who need it most. And for the drugmakers who hold these patents, it means huge financial losses.
“Once knowledge and other information is disseminated, it becomes worthless; this is an irreparable loss for the companies that invested time, money and resources to develop this information. Of particular concern is the fact that intangible assets, including intellectual property, are a large percentage of most companies’ assets,” McDowell said.
Drugmakers fear that once drug patent protection is waived, countries around the world will go into production in large numbers, to the detriment of patent-holding drugmakers. And since India is known to be the world’s largest producer of generic brands and off-patent drugs, analysts believe this could be a major concern for drugmakers.
Yet Gostin, a professor of health law at Georgetown University, told the Voice of America that India should not be a concern on this issue, but is needed right now to do just that. “India’s ability to produce generic drugs and vaccines would be of great benefit to the United States and the world. We need Indian plants to help drive vaccine production,” he said.
For his part, Ebright, a professor of biochemistry at Rutgers University, argued that all current vaccine technologies are well presented and widely known in the research community. “Countries seeking to replicate the technology will go ahead and do so whether or not there is an exemption for vaccine IP. If there is an exemption, they will go ahead and produce it in a controlled manner with gratitude; if they don’t get an exemption, they will not be scrupulous and will instead go ahead and produce it in an uncontrolled manner,” he said.
Supporters: will modify the plan to seek a solution under the WTO framework
The Pharma Letter, an online media outlet in London, England, that focuses on the global pharmaceutical, generic and biotech industries, reported Monday (May 3) that the White House has not committed to a vaccine IP exemption, leaving a proposed exemption for New Crown vaccine IP on hold last Friday and leaving the WTO’s “Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights” (TRIPS) Council in limbo. The report said the White House did not commit to a vaccine IP exemption, leaving the proposed exemption for New Crown vaccine IP in limbo on Friday and disappointing the WTO’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report said the council’s chairman said proponents of the exemption would revise the plan to find common ground.
“Ambassador Dagfinn Sørli of Norway, chairman of the TRIPS Council, said there was now reason for some “cautious optimism” in light of the planned revisions. (cautious optimism). Sørli said that although there are significant differences among member states, all parties are willing to find a constructive and consensual solution.
Recent Comments