Key decision: Joe Biden’s government backed vaccine patent suspension

WASHINGTON.- The Joe Biden government has decided to support the suspension of intellectual property rights on coronavirus vaccines to increase their global production, unprecedented and crucial support for an initiative that could distort the global fight against the pandemic at the worst time of the health crisis, when infections and deaths are endemic in India and Latin America.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic demand extraordinary measures,” said United States Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai.

“The administration aims to get as many safe and effective vaccines as possible to as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” he added.

India and South Africa have emerged at the forefront of a global offensive at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to secure the suspension of vaccine patents, and open formulas to countries so they can move forward with production. The United States had blocked the idea. Now Tai has said the Biden government is “actively” negotiating with the WTO to move forward with the suspension of vaccine patents, and also said the Biden government will work to increase the supply of vaccines. inputs for the manufacture of vaccines.

The Biden government debated these days whether or not to give in to the international claim, and supported the idea of ​​allowing the manufacture of vaccines in any laboratory or pharmaceutical company in the world, or if, on the contrary, it chooses to preserve intellectual property and expand production in the United States to supply d ‘other countries.

Behind the White House deliberations arose the geopolitical interests of the United States and the companies themselves, as well as a debate on how best to accelerate the global vaccination campaign in the face of the urgent need to save lives and finish breaking the pandemic. . For many, the suspension was a moral imperative. Among the arguments in favor of opening formulas, it appeared that this would allow other countries to produce their own vaccines. But some U.S. officials feared it could spark a global supply war that could complicate global manufacturing. And, in Washington’s view, suspending patents means handing over a technological breakthrough to rivals like Russia or China, and potentially breaking incentives for innovation. The alternative route is to speed up current production and move forward with donations and the Covax mechanism.

Tai said the Biden administration strongly believes in intellectual property protections, but in the service of ending this pandemic, it supports the suspension of such protections for Covid-19 vaccines.

The internal White House discussion took place in the midst of increasing pressure on Washington – external and internal – to speed up the fight against the pandemic in the face of the brutal desolation it is leaving in countries like Brazil and India, which a few days ago recorded more than 400,000 daily infections for the first time, another world record and the advancement of vaccination campaigns in wealthy nations, where life in many countries has already started to return to normal.

The United States’ willingness to support the suspension of corporate patents had been supported by activists, human rights organizations and figures like Pope Francis. Over 170 past presidents, such as Gordon Brown of the UK, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, or François Hollande of France, and Nobel laureates, such as Joseph Stiglitz, signed and sent a letter home Blanche asking for the suspension.

“An urgent temporary exemption from intellectual property rules at the World Trade Organization would help us increase the global vaccine supply with a multi-year global burden-sharing plan to finance vaccines for the poorest countries,” said Brown. “It would be in the strategic interest of the United States and all countries on the planet,” he said.