PHM-Exch> Politics, Profits Undermine Public Interest in Covid-19 Vaccine Race

[Claudio Schuftan]

*Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury*

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (IPS)  - With well over five million
Covid-19 infections worldwide, and deaths exceeding 340,000, the race for
an effective vaccine has accelerated since the SARS-Cov-2 virus was first
identified as the culprit.

Expecting to score politically from being ‘first' to have a vaccine, US
President Trump's Operation Warp Speed promises to get 300 million doses to
Americans by January, after the November polls, following several failed
attempts to monopolize vaccines being developed by European companies.

More than 115 vaccine development efforts are ongoing around the world.
Eight human trials are underway, including five in China, with the most
promising one government financed. Meanwhile, affordable access is the
primary concern for most of the world.

Fighting epidemics together
Sixty-five years ago, Jonas Salk insisted that the polio vaccine he had
developed remain patent free. Asked who owned the patent, he replied, "The
people I would say. There is no patent. You might as well ask, could you
patent the sun?"

Making vaccines and life-saving drugs available freely or affordably has
been crucial for containing infectious diseases such as tuberculosis,
HIV-AIDS, polio and smallpox. Smallpox had a 30% mortality rate among those
infected, and was responsible for 10% of the world's blind.

In 1958, the Soviet Union urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to
eradicate smallpox, offering funding for a plan. Surprising many, the US,
already WHO's major funder, agreed, resulting in the rivals' most
successful collaboration during the Cold War.

Smallpox was eradicated in 1977, following a WHO campaign seeking total
eradication within a decade, launched in 1967, when there were over 2.5
million cases worldwide. However, the paltry budget approved by the WHA
would not even have paid for the vaccines required.

The programme was launched in developing countries with vaccines donated by
other countries including both Cold War rivals. Developing countries
quickly developed vaccine producing and vaccination capabilities with
generous technical assistance from abroad.

A people's vaccine?
More than 140 world leaders and experts signed an open letter before the
World Health Assembly (WHA) began on 18 May, calling on governments to
commit to a ‘people's vaccine' against COVID-19, with all vaccines,
treatments and tests patent-free, mass produced, fairly distributed and
available to all, in every country, free of charge.

Leaders of Italy, France, Germany, Norway, the European Commission and
Council urged that the vaccine be "produced by the world, for the whole
world" as a "global public good of the 21st century". President Xi promised
that a China developed vaccine will be a "global public good", with
"accessibility and affordability in developing countries", with President
Macron pledging likewise.

The United Nations Secretary-General also emphasized that everybody must
have access to the vaccine when available. The WHA unanimously acknowledged
that vaccines, treatments and tests are global public goods, but was vague
on implications.

Nevertheless, the US disassociated itself from over-riding patents in the
interests of public health, objecting that it would send the "wrong message
to innovators". Both Johnson & Johnson and French pharmaceutical giant
Sanofi have US government contracts to develop potential treatments, but
the US Health and Human Services Secretary refuses to guarantee they will
be affordable.

Earlier, the US did not join the 24 April world leaders' pledge to increase
cooperation against Covid-19, besides ignoring a 4 May pledge by
international leaders and organizations to spend US$8 billion to make
available a vaccine and treatments.

Contain China, not the pandemic
Unfortunately, three decades after the Cold War ended, the context is very
different now, due to politics and profits. Trump's ‘America first'
administration and some key allies seeking to check China fear that
Beijing's handling of the Covid-19 crisis has boosted its already fast
rising standing.

By April, the US and its allies were blaming China for the pandemic due to
the "Chinese virus". Trump upped the ante on 27 April by threatening
retaliatory measures against China for billions of dollars of damages
worldwide, claiming that China could have stopped the epidemic at source,
but did not.

Offering no evidence, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also accused
‘China-affiliated' hackers of trying to steal intellectual property (IP)
for Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and testing. Meanwhile, some US states,
politicians and companies have also filed lawsuits against China for
damages.

All this has also undermined the WHO, now depicted as China's puppet.
POTUS's tough letter to the Director-General demanded "substantive", but
unspecified "improvements" at the WHO within 30 days, threatening to
permanently end already suspended US funding and to quit altogether.

‘America first' vs global public interest
With elections less than half a year away, Trump's recent rhetoric and
policies appear preoccupied with boosting his re-election prospects,
slipping due to his handling of the outbreak.

Unsurprisingly, international concerns over US control of an effective
Covid-19 vaccine have grown. German weekly, Die Welt am Sonntag reported in
March that POTUS had offered German biotech company, CureVac about US$1
billion for exclusive access to the vaccine it is developing.

    Earlier this month, Sanofi hastily backed down after the French Prime
Minister insisted that access for all was "non-negotiable" following the
CEO's 13 May announcement that the US government had "the right to the
largest pre-order because it's invested in taking the risk" despite French
government support for Sanofi worth hundreds of millions of euros.

Profits vs public interest
Only a few giant companies can develop and produce a vaccine from start to
finish, due to the expense and range of expertise required. Historically,
most vaccines have been developed in the North, often reaching the South
much later.

During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, some OECD governments contracted with
pharmaceutical giants to monopolize the H1N1 swine flu vaccine. After
developing a promising Zika vaccine in 2017, the US Army assigned
production rights to Sanofi, but the deal fell through following
profiteering charges by US watchdog organizations and Senator Bernie
Sanders.

Despite enjoying the patent system's extended monopolies, at the expense of
public health, limited prospects for lucrative profits have generally
discouraged investments to develop affordable medicines and vaccines for
developing countries.

What can be done
Some pharmaceutical giants, e.g., Glaxo-Smith-Kline and Sanofi, claim they
do not expect to profit from the Covid-19 vaccine. But such recent industry
promises not to profiteer from making the vaccine globally available are
hard to reconcile with the record that drug research and development has
long been driven by the prospect of massive profits.

Such firms have been urged to make the Open Covid pledge to voluntarily
relinquish their IP rights (IPRs), at least until the Covid-19 pandemic is
over. But Oxfam fears this may not be enough. As Big Pharma has long
enjoyed massive government subsidies, national authorities can enforce the
pledge.

Governments can also use ‘compulsory licencing', permitted by World Trade
Organization rules, to enable companies that do not have the IPRs, to make,
manufacture and sell generic versions of patented medicines only for
national sale, as the Bush administration did with Tamiflu a decade and a
half ago in the face of the Avian flu threat.
---------------------------------------
Link
http://ipsnews.net/2020/05/politics-profits-undermine-public-interest-covid-19-vaccine-race
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20200527/59c01bf0/attachment.html>