Biden’s Administration has announced that it supports lifting intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, potentially allowing more countries to produce them for easier and broader access. The move comes after more than 170 former heads of state and Nobel laureates including former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, former President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former President of France François Hollande last month called on President Biden to waive intellectual property rules for Covid-19 vaccines. The US Trade Representative Katherine Thai said in a statement released on Thursday, May 6, that the United States supports the waiver of IP protections to help end the pandemic and pledged to actively participate in WTO negotiations to make that happen. “This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections but, in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for covid-19 vaccines,” a statement from the Office of the US Trade Representative reads in part. Those negotiations will, however, take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved. According to the statement, the US Administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible. “As our vaccine supply for the American people is secured, the Administration will continue to ramp up its efforts, working with the private sector and all possible partners, to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution. It will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce those vaccines,” the statement further reads. What the move means for Covid-19 fight While India remains the latest global hotspot for Covid-19, with over 21 million cases reported so far as of Wednesday, May 5, South Africa has also highly been exposed to the new covid-19 variant leading to a number of countries to impose travel bans on both countries. In December last year, medical journal, The Lancet, reported that the two countries appealed to WTO to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights so that Covid-19 vaccines and other new technologies are accessible for poor countries to be able to control the virus. A waiver of intellectual property rules would allow for a scale up in manufacturing in the U.S. and around the world, overcoming artificial supply constraints. In India, for instance, less than 2% of its population has been vaccinated, yet the country on Thursday, May 6, reported world-record 412 000 covid-19 cases, and nearly 3 900 fatalities in 24 hours. Meanwhile, new Covid-19 cases are at record highs globally, as the pandemic rages unchecked in many poor and middle-income countries. However, the pharmaceutical industry and many high-income countries have been opposing the move, which they say will stifle innovation when it is needed most. Due to the shortage of covid-19 vaccine supplies, some rich countries have been making bilateral vaccine deals with manufacturers which could derail vaccination low-income countries. Tedros Adhanom, the Director-General World Health Organisation, last month said there remained a shocking imbalance in the distribution of and access to the Covid-19 vaccines.
