{"id":306452,"date":"2021-09-10T10:36:53","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T10:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobinmag.com\/2021\/09\/joe-biden-vaccine-waiver-global-ip-world-trade\/"},"modified":"2021-09-10T10:39:30","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T10:39:30","slug":"joe-biden-is-still-fighting-a-vaccine-waiver-for-the-rest-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/09\/10\/joe-biden-is-still-fighting-a-vaccine-waiver-for-the-rest-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden Is Still Fighting a Vaccine Waiver for the Rest of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n\n\n\n

Biden and European Union officials continue to help Big Pharma prevent the distribution of intellectual property rights to fight COVID.<\/h3>\n\n\n
\n \n
\n President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his plan to stop the spread of the Delta variant and boost COVID-19 vaccinations, on September 9, 2021. (Kent Nishimura \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)\n <\/figcaption> \n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n \n

In May, the Biden administration made a bombshell declaration, endorsing a call to temporarily suspend intellectual property (IP) rights on COVID vaccines that health and trade experts say could greatly improve access to shots in the Global South \u2014 a move that appeared to mark a turning point in the global fight against the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Months later, though, as the pandemic rages and the glaring gap in vaccine access grows, the effort remains blocked at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Any waiver for vaccines needs the green light from the organization\u2019s TRIPS Council<\/a> \u2014 the commission in charge of IP rights \u2014 and unanimous support from all 164 members<\/a>. But as delegations return to Geneva after summer break, a long-circulated proposal<\/a> backed by India and South Africa has yet to gain traction.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Biden administration \u2014 which has deep ties<\/a> to the pharmaceutical industry \u2014 has proven unwilling to share vaccine recipes with other countries, as we reported earlier this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really upsetting watching this process,\u201d says Hu Yuan Qiong, policy co-coordinator and senior legal and policy adviser for Doctors Without Borders\u2019 Access Campaign<\/a>. \u201cViruses disregard whatever game we\u2019re playing in human society; they just carry on and mutate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The deadlock is the product of multiple factors. Hostility from the United Kingdom and the European Union as well as criticism from Big Pharma have complicated efforts, but as experts tell us, so has the apparent unwillingness of the Biden administration to go beyond its four-month-old statement and actually start pressing for a waiver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working on trade policy for a while, and I know that when the United States wants something, they get it,\u201d Burcu Kilic<\/a>, a trade policy expert at Public Citizen, tells us. \u201cThe United States should [play] a proactive role in this discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n\n \n \n \n

European Intransigence Amid Pharma\u2019s Lobbying Blitz<\/h2>\n \n

One immediate obstacle is the United Kingdom. As Hu from Doctors Without Borders says, Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s government has shown little interest in changing its position over the last few months. She says it\u2019s effectively stuck to the talking points of AstraZeneca, pointing to the pharmaceutical company\u2019s willingness to work with producers in the developing world as supposed evidence that a waiver is unnecessary.<\/p>\n

Appearing before the TRIPS Council in June, for instance, the British government argued<\/a> that technology transfers and voluntary licensing \u201cexemplified by the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine\u201d and its partnerships are \u201cmaking real, positive impact.\u201d In a statement, the UK said it was not \u201cconvinced how an IP waiver, if agreed, would increase the supply of COVID-19 goods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hu doesn\u2019t buy it. \u201cWe\u2019ve explained to them, \u2018We\u2019re not just talking about AstraZeneca vaccines, we\u2019re talking about many vaccines and many treatments,\u2019\u201d she says of the UK. \u201cMaybe a company like AstraZeneca has done a little bit more than another company, but that will not solve the global issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

An ideal waiver on IP rights, she stresses, would also cover the two messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, as well as medical equipment, technologies used for therapeutic treatment, and future vaccines.<\/p>\n

Lobbying disclosure regulations in the UK are relatively weak. Only lobbyists working for third-party firms are required to sign the country\u2019s lobbying register<\/a>, which, as a result, covers just a small fraction of the country\u2019s lobbyists, most of whom are employed in-house.<\/p>\n

Still, British government departments are required to disclose information about meetings with external organizations \u2014 and, according to records compiled<\/a> by Transparency International and consulted by us, no single external organization in the UK has met more with the British government since the beginning of 2021 than AstraZeneca. The Cambridge-based pharmaceutical giant beat out the country\u2019s top business lobby, the Confederation of British Industry, and the Port of Dover, the massive seaport that has struggled to adjust to Brexit.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the European Union also continues to oppose a proposed TRIPS waiver. While several national governments \u2014 including France and Spain \u2014 have said they support a waiver, what ultimately counts in Geneva is the stance of the EU\u2019s executive branch, the European Commission. Rather than open up talks over the text backed by South Africa and India, the EU has offered up a separate proposal<\/a> of its own, bogging down the discussion.<\/p>\n

EU officials maintain that a broad waiver on IP rights for vaccines doesn\u2019t address<\/a> the underlying problem of inadequate manufacturing capacity. According to this argument, even if producers in lower-income countries had the legal authority to start churning out COVID vaccines, they wouldn\u2019t be able to, because they lack the factories or technological know-how.<\/p>\n

But Hu of Doctors Without Borders says that\u2019s a red herring. Like many supporters of a temporary suspension in IP rights, she doesn\u2019t claim a waiver will result in a transformation overnight. Instead, she views it as a launching pad to a scenario in which knowledge, data, and technology can flow more freely between states and manufacturers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t say, \u2018Okay, you have a law,\u2019 and then tomorrow start [producing]\u2019 \u2014 it\u2019s not going to happen that fast,\u201d she explains. \u201cBut the earlier you open the door, the more certainty you can provide for the producers so they can prepare . . . the longer they don\u2019t allow this door to open, the more problems we\u2019ll face.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we have previously reported, Big Pharma boasts a heavy presence<\/a> in Brussels. Between March 2020 and May 2021, EU commissioners involved in medicine and vaccine issues met 140 times with pharmaceutical companies, and just once with an organization that supports a waiver on IP rights, according to the Corporate Europe Observatory, a watchdog group. Last year, Europe\u2019s top pharmaceutical lobby spent more than \u20ac5.25 million<\/a> on lobbying EU officials, the eighth-highest amount reported by any lobbying organization in the EU in 2020.<\/p>\n

For Hu, Big Pharma\u2019s political influence helps explain the hostility from both London and Brussels to a waiver. \u201cWe strongly believe there is a direct correlation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Closely related political and ideological factors help drive pushback as well \u2014 especially when it comes to Europe\u2019s largest economy and most prominent opponent of a waiver, Germany.<\/p>\n

The country is home to BioNTech, which developed the widely used mRNA shot alongside Pfizer. Even though the latter company has reaped most of the vaccine\u2019s financial rewards, Burcu Kilic of Public Citizen says that officials in Berlin seem to regard vaccine development as a source of national pride. For many within Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s ruling party, the Christian Democratic Union, there is a sense that lifting IP protections amounts to a slap in the face to national industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes beyond BioNTech,\u201d Kilic says. \u201cIt\u2019s about German inventions, German [small and midsize enterprises], Germany saving the world . . . it\u2019s political, but it\u2019s also emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \n \n \n

American Indifference<\/h2>\n \n

Both Hu and Kilic argue the United States should be more aggressive \u2014 by putting pressure on its allies to back a waiver or, at the very least, by jump-starting serious negotiations.<\/p>\n

Up until now, the Biden administration has largely kept to the sidelines on the issue of IP rights. However, the US government may already have a strong case<\/a> that it owns the IP on the Moderna vaccine, given its role in the shot\u2019s development. The Biden administration could, in theory, share information about the dose with other producers \u2014 as the South Korean government has already requested.<\/p>\n

But even beyond the narrow issue of the Moderna shot, the American agency that negotiates trade policy, the United States Trade Representative (USTR), hasn\u2019t issued a statement on the subject of a vaccine waiver since its widely celebrated declaration of support back in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not usually what the United States or USTR does in these types of negotiations,\u201d says Kilic from Public Citizen. \u201cIt\u2019s like Lionel Messi saying, \u2018I want to be in the World Cup,\u2019 but then he\u2019s not playing. You say you want a waiver, but you don\u2019t do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The USTR did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In any case, the WTO\u2019s TRIPS Council is slated to meet informally next week, on September 14. After weeks of inaction, that meeting could prove the impetus for progress, even if a full breakthrough doesn\u2019t come until later in the year.<\/p>\n

Kilic remains optimistic that the deadlock will break. For one, she says political pressure is mounting on the United States, EU, and UK. But she also argues the future of the WTO is at stake \u2014 a fact that helps explain why the organization\u2019s newly appointed director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has taken an active role<\/a> in talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last decade, the WTO became a nonfunctional organization, and there\u2019s pressure on the WTO and the WTO leadership to do something about that,\u201d Kilic says. \u201c[The director-general] knows that if they let this go, this\u2019ll be the end of the WTO.\u201d<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the result will be to the liking of those pushing for a broad waiver. Unlike India and South Africa, for instance, the United States has called for a waiver that covers vaccines alone \u2014 not medical equipment or other COVID-related treatments.<\/p>\n

Kilic also expects Big Pharma to start flexing its muscles in the coming weeks. If a deal at the WTO appears inevitable, industry will want to shape that outcome in its favor. She says much of the final outcome may depend on the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need them to take the lead,\u201d Kilic says of the United States. \u201cI believe there will be something, but the question is, what will it be?\u201d<\/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":"

In May, the Biden administration made a bombshell declaration, endorsing a call to temporarily suspend intellectual property (IP) rights on COVID vaccines that health and trade experts say could greatly improve access to shots in the Global South \u2014 a move that appeared to mark a turning point in the global fight against the pandemic. [\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\/306452"}],"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=306452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306453,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306452\/revisions\/306453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}