A major state bioscience industry group on Saturday backed calls to protect pharmaceutical patents for COVID-19 vaccines.
The industry is mobilizing nationwide against the Biden administration’s endorsement of a global plan to waive patent protections for Covid vaccines so poor countries can manufacture their own versions at lower cost.
On Friday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that waiving vaccine patents would trigger a rush for the medications’ ingredients and threaten all vaccine manufacturing.
“Entities with little or no experience in manufacturing vaccines are likely to chase the very raw materials we require to scale our production, putting the safety and security of all at risk,” Bourla said in a statement. The move would also disincentivize companies from investing in future vaccines, he added, noting that Pfizer spent $2 billion on R&D while developing its COVID-19 shot.
Who to believe over COVID vaccines: Biden or Merkel?
8 hours ago
Amy Aves Challenger,
The Independent
In the small waiting room of my Zurich doctor, birds sang through a curtained window after I finally got my first jab of the Moderna vaccine. My vaccine likely was made in Moderna’s facility in Basel. Yet it wasn’t available to me until this week because the US wasn’t exporting many vaccines. Again and again throughout the pandemic, vaccines have been made in European labs, shipped to the US for bottling, and then refused re-importation to European countries which are now in more need than America.
Print this article
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will support patent waivers for COVID-19 vaccines as part of a global effort to boost supplies in poorer countries. Here’s what you should know:
Question: What did President Joe Biden propose?
Answer: The Biden administration announced its support for a global proposal to lift intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines temporarily in order to give developing countries the license to manufacture generic versions.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, who made the
announcement on Wednesday, called the administration’s policy reversal “extraordinary measures … in service of ending this pandemic.”
Negotiating an agreement could be a long and messy process. It’s really crucial that we begin ramping up manufacturing immediately, because we’re going to have the likelihood of big outbreaks around the world in the coming months and years, Frieden said. So, a multi-month negotiation is not a formula for rapid improvement in global vaccine and supply.
In order for a waiver to pass, every country needs to agree. While the hope is that U.S. support will drive the movement forward, key American allies in Europe have been raising concerns, and any one of them could block the move.
Big Pharma says vaccine patent waiver sets dangerous precedent
12
published : 7 May 2021 at 08:45
12 With soaring Covid-19 rates in poorer countries like India, pressure is on for Big Pharma to waive vaccine patent protections.
NEW YORK: Waiving patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines is fiercely opposed by Big Pharma because they say it would set a precedent that could threaten future innovations, and insist the move would not speed up production.
Here are some of the consequences waiving the patent protection on novel coronavirus vaccines could have.
No immediate impact
The vaccine makers say patents are not the key factor impeding faster production.