Countries Need Covid Vaccines Now, and Patent Waivers Won’t Deliver Them Bloomberg 5/7/2021 James Paton and Tim Loh
(Bloomberg) The U.S.-backed effort to waive patent protection for Covid-19 vaccines, even if successful, is unlikely to narrow a yawning gap in access to life-saving shots anytime soon.
The proposal faces weeks of difficult negotiations and intense pushback from the pharmaceutical industry. And if it were approved at the World Trade Organization, it could take a year or more to meaningfully increase supplies, vaccine specialists said.
“The short answer is no, it’s not going to make any big difference,” said Klaus Stohr, a former World Health Organization official who helped mobilize governments and drugmakers to prepare for pandemics. “Patents are not the real hurdle. It’s the understanding of complex technology.”
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Yesterday, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the Biden-Harris Administration s support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines (see Biden Administration Supports Waiver of IP Protection for COVID-19 Vaccines ). The waiver was proposed last fall by India and South Africa, which asked the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to recommend a waiver from the implementation, application and enforcement of Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19 to the General Council of the WTO. In March, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), a group of fifteen industry and trade organizations (including BIO), and a group of intellectual property organizations (including the IPO), sent letters to the Biden Administratio
River says:
It seems the Biden administrations and those incompetent eight Democratic senators supporting waiving the patent IP did not do their research.
If Pfizer offer the vaccine at the cost for poor countries, how does waiving patent help lower the price? It seems India and African government are playing some games to avoid being blame by their people for their incompetent. At least if the vaccine is made by Pfizer or Modern, one can be sure of handling and quality since it is not easy to handle mRNA vaccine. The flu vaccine that was not keep at proper temperature end up killing people in Korea.
A National Guard soldier in New York City is seen April 6, 2021, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, now open as a vaccination center, as people stand in line to get vaccinated against COVID-19. (CNS photo/Timothy A. Clary, Pool via Reuters)
The Catholic Medical Mission Board recently joined a coalition of over 40 Catholic organizations to promote vaccine equity as an “Act of Charity and Solidarity.” The Catholic Cares Coalition is calling for the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines among nations and among those Americans who have been hard to reach, including rural populations, immigrants, and inner-city and BIPOC communities. It is echoing the message of Pope Francis in his remarks at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meeting on April 7, when he called for “justly financed vaccine solidarity,” adding that “we cannot allow the law of the marketplace to take precedence over the law of love and the health of all.”