{"id":187217,"date":"2021-06-01T11:21:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T11:21:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/06\/big-pharma-european-union-vaccine-covid-patents\/"},"modified":"2021-06-01T11:21:50","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T11:21:50","slug":"big-pharmas-eu-lobbying-could-spell-disaster-for-global-south-vaccine-waivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/01\/big-pharmas-eu-lobbying-could-spell-disaster-for-global-south-vaccine-waivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Pharma\u2019s EU Lobbying Could Spell Disaster for Global South Vaccine Waivers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Pharma giants have spent big on lobbying European Union officials over vaccine waivers. It\u2019s paid off: now key European power brokers oppose suspending global vaccine patents to fight the pandemic in the Global South.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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\n German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron speak to the media on February 5, 2021 in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup \/ Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

The Biden administration\u2019s\u00a0newfound support<\/a>\u00a0for waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines could prove to be a turning point in the fight against the pandemic and a major step forward for health care access in the Global South. But before that, the effort needs to overcome a hefty roadblock: hostility from the European Union.<\/p>\n

Any legally binding suspension of global patents on vaccines requires unanimous support from the World Trade Organization\u2019s commission on IP rights, better known as the TRIPS Council<\/a>, slated to meet June 8\u20139 in Geneva. While the United States said in May that it was finally interested in negotiating a proposal to do just that, signs suggest the European Commission \u2014 the executive branch of the EU, which has forged close ties with the pharmaceutical industry \u2014 will likely continue to oppose a proposed waiver on vaccines.<\/p>\n

Pharmaceutical interests have become one of the biggest lobbying forces in Europe, according to spending disclosures reviewed by the Daily Poster<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternationally, there\u2019s a real risk that the European Union could make this drag out, that their actions in Geneva and at the World Trade Organization could lead to a serious delay,\u201d says Kenneth Haar, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory, a watchdog tracking corporate influence in the EU. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge problem because time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Opposition From EU Power Brokers<\/h2>\n \n

For months, India and South Africa have championed<\/a> a proposed waiver of intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics \u2014 a move they say is necessary to boost the Global South\u2019s response to the virus and to help slow the spread of the pandemic. Many others agree, including the head of the World Health Organization, Pope Francis, and scores<\/a>\u00a0of NGOs like Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam, and the International Trade Union Confederation.<\/p>\n

While at least two European governments, that of\u00a0Spain<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Poland<\/a>, have publicly thrown their support behind a waiver since Washington\u2019s about-face, the EU\u2019s twin power brokers have yet to come around. Despite some initial\u00a0enthusiasm<\/a> from French president Emmanuel Macron following Biden\u2019s announcement, his government has yet to endorse a waiver of IP rights, while Germany<\/a>\u00a0hasn\u2019t appeared to budge at all from its opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith France, you never know; Macron\u2019s position depends on the time of day or what\u2019s in the newspaper that morning,\u201d says Haar. \u201cBut officially, the French position is not in favor, and they\u2019re backing [Angela] Merkel on this.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the EU\u2019s executive branch, the European Commission, hasn\u2019t formally ruled out<\/a>\u00a0support for a TRIPS waiver, EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis outlined a very different approach in a speech to European Parliament on May 19.<\/p>\n

He said<\/a> the EU was preparing to submit an \u201calternative proposal\u201d to the WTO, a plan centered around three measures that have already been on the table for months: getting drugmakers to pledge to distribute vaccines in developing countries; pushing states to grant what are known as \u201ccompulsory licenses\u201d to producers who don\u2019t hold patent rights, a move authorized under existing WTO rules; and finally, forcing governments to end de facto export restrictions on vaccines.<\/p>\n

European leaders like to hammer home that last point in particular. Last month, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen noted<\/a> the EU has exported roughly half the COVID-19 vaccines produced on its shores and called on the United States and the UK to catch up.<\/p>\n

But as Dimitri Eynikel, a representative to the EU on medical access and vaccines from the NGO Doctors Without Borders<\/a>\u00a0points out, that observation doesn\u2019t make for an effective argument against lifting IP rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a fair point that the EU makes. It puts pressure on the UK and the US to be exporting doses; we completely agree with that,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it doesn\u2019t take away the discussion over the waiver, because that\u2019s about global production capacity. The other point is about immediate need, delivering the vaccines right now, making them available right now. [Doing that] doesn\u2019t increase your global production capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eynikel believes geopolitical and strategic reasons may partially explain the EU\u2019s opposition to waiving IP rights. Back in March, for instance, European Council president Charles Michel boldly proclaimed<\/a>\u00a0Europe was set to be the world\u2019s \u201cleading vaccine-producing continent\u201d by the end of the year and argued that exports were evidence of the EU \u201cactively promoting its values\u201d worldwide. But Eynikel says another factor for the resistance could be the power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry, whose calls to protect private-sector innovation have carried the day in Brussels.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Big Spending by Big Pharma in Brussels<\/h2>\n \n

As a recent report<\/a>\u00a0from the Corporate Europe Observatory highlighted, the European Commission has overwhelmingly prioritized talks with industry contacts over civil society groups when it comes to vaccines. From the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 to early May 2021, EU commissioners with a direct stake in medicine and vaccines met 140 times with pharmaceutical companies and just once with a group that supports a patent waiver, according to the watchdog group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission has created a perfect echo chamber,\u201d says Haar, who worked on the report. \u201cThey\u2019ve locked themselves in, almost, with representatives of the pharmaceutical sector, and they haven\u2019t really been hearing close-up arguments from the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something Eynikel has experienced firsthand as a lobbyist for Doctors Without Borders. He says his NGO communicates with EU administrative staff, but that it hasn\u2019t been able to secure a high-level meeting with any of the relevant commissioners themselves.<\/p>\n

In December 2020, Doctors Without Borders put in requests to meet with health commissioner Stella Kyriakides<\/a> and trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis<\/a>. According to Eynikel, the former declined the request, while the latter did not respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know these discussions carry a lot of weight,\u201d Eynikel says of the one-on-one meetings with commissioners. \u201cThe instruction would have to come all the way from the top if there\u2019s a shift in position, and this is why you need to engage with the highest political levels.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. We have not been able to have that meeting and discuss our point of view and explain why we\u2019re looking at the issue with a different lens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question is: Are they really interested in all the options?\u201d he continues, referring to the commissioners. \u201cOr are they interested in the options that are how they\u2019ve done things before?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike in the United States, campaign contributions are heavily regulated across Europe. Likewise, the amount of cash spent on lobbying in the EU pales in comparison to levels on the other side of the Atlantic. Brussels is nevertheless home to a growing cluster<\/a>\u00a0of trade groups, law firms, and corporate power brokers bent on shaping European policy, and the numbers don\u2019t lie: Big Pharma is one of the leaders in the field.<\/p>\n

Last year, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), the industry\u2019s top trade group on the continent, whose\u00a0members<\/a> include vaccine makers Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson,\u00a0spent<\/a>\u00a0between \u20ac5.25 and \u20ac5.49 million on lobbying EU officials, according to EU disclosures compiled by LobbyFacts.eu. That sum was the\u00a0eighth-<\/a>highest amount reported by any lobbying organization in 2020 with a presence in the European Parliament and an office in Brussels. The group\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0one of its top priorities is \u201cintellectual property protection\u201d \u2014 and the organization recently\u00a0slammed<\/a>\u00a0the Biden administration\u2019s statement in support of waiving vaccine patents.<\/p>\n

EFPIA has met with high-level European Commission officials more than three dozen times since the pandemic started, according to LobbyFacts.eu, a project overseen by the Corporate Europe Observatory and German NGO LobbyControl. The watchdog group reported that EFPIA held a video call with Kyriakides\u00a0described<\/a>\u00a0as a \u201cdiscussion on COVID-19 vaccines export authorisation scheme.\u201d Early in the pandemic, EFPIA\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on its website that the organization was participating in \u201cweekly calls\u201d with Kyriakides and other top EU officials.<\/p>\n

On top of that, individual pharmaceutical companies often have their own armies of lobbyists in Europe. Last year, German giant Bayer\u00a0spent<\/a> more than \u20ac4.25 million on lobbying, more than any other company in the EU after Google, Facebook, and Microsoft. Switzerland-based Novartis, meanwhile,\u00a0shelled out<\/a>\u00a0more than \u20ac2.25 million, and UK-based GlaxoSmithKline\u00a0paid out<\/a> more than \u20ac1 million. FTI Consulting Belgium, the European arm of the Washington, DC public relations firm, is another one of the top<\/a> spenders lobbying the European Parliament and the European Commission. The firm\u2019s clients include COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, and several other pharmaceutical companies, according to EU disclosure records<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

Shifting Waters<\/h2>\n \n

The battle is far from over. Public health advocates and human rights NGOs hope the EU will eventually shift its stance under pressure<\/a>. The US change in position has already shifted the conversation, putting European leaders on the defensive and contributing to growing public criticism<\/a>\u00a0of the EU\u2019s stance.<\/p>\n

One avenue for change exists at the national level. If enough member states start speaking out in favor of a patent waiver, that could pressure Merkel and her colleagues to drop their opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see, hopefully, one government after the other change its position to a more positive attitude to the waiver,\u201d says Haar. \u201cI suspect that perhaps Germany may be isolated in the end. And I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll be able to stand strong if they\u2019re alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the institutions of the EU themselves could also play a critical role in pushing the European Commission to accept the inevitability of an agreement over a patent waiver.<\/p>\n

The European Parliament recently voted<\/a> in favor of a resolution that included an amendment calling on the EU to endorse the South African and Indian proposal for a waiver at the WTO \u2014 a parliamentary maneuver led by the Left Group<\/a>, one of\u00a0seven<\/a>\u00a0formal blocs in the legislature and which includes parties like Germany\u2019s\u00a0Die Linke, Spain\u2019s\u00a0Podemos,\u00a0and\u00a0La France Insoumise.<\/p>\n

The vote from legislators was nonbinding \u2014 the Commission, not Parliament, determines EU trade policy \u2014 but it nevertheless reflects the shifting political waters. Not only did it win backing from centrists, but it also earned support from some right-wing MEPs, part of the largest bloc in Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re for lifting patents on vaccines because it should be a global public good,\u201d\u00a0Anne-Sophie Pelletier<\/a>, an MEP from La France Insoumise and member of the Left Group, tells the Daily Poster<\/em>. \u201cThis pandemic has been a catastrophe for the whole world, we all want to leave it behind, and it\u2019s unacceptable that Big Pharma is getting rich off our lives.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. We should be in solidarity to get out of this crisis, and if the vaccine is a solution, then everybody who wants to get vaccinated should be able to do it freely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The European Parliament is slated to take up a separate stand-alone resolution on supporting a COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver when it meets on June 7<\/a> \u2014 just a day before the pivotal WTO meeting kicks off in Geneva. A vote from legislators in favor of suspending IP rights would carry hefty political weight: no matter how uncomfortable it makes Big Pharma, it could make it all the more difficult for the EU to hold up talks at the table.<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n\n \n \n

You can subscribe to David Sirota\u2019s investigative journalism project, the\u00a0Daily Poster<\/i>,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post was originally published on Jacobin<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Biden administration\u2019s\u00a0newfound support\u00a0for waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines could prove to be a turning point in the fight against the pandemic and a major step forward for health care access in the Global South. But before that, the effort needs to overcome a hefty roadblock: hostility from the European Union. Any legally [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2784,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187217"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187218,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187217\/revisions\/187218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}