PHM-Exch> End Vaccine Apartheid Before Millions More Die

[Claudio Schuftan]

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram


*SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 23 2021 (IPS) *- At least 85 poor countries
will not
<https://www.eiu.com/n/85-poor-countries-will-not-have-access-to-coronavirus-vaccines/>
have
significant access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023. Unfortunately, a
year’s delay will cause an estimated 2.5 million avoidable deaths in low
and lower-middle income countries. As the World Health Organization (WHO)
Director-General has put it, the world is at the brink of a catastrophic
moral failure
<https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-148th-session-of-the-executive-board>
.

*Vaccine apartheid*
The EU, US, UK, Switzerland, Canada and their allies continue to block
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-wto-idUSKBN2AW1VO> the
developing country proposal to temporarily suspend the World Trade
Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
(TRIPS) agreement to enable greatly increased, affordable supplies of
COVID-19 vaccines, drugs, tests and equipment.

Meanwhile, 6.4 billion of the 12.5 billion vaccine doses the main producers
plan to produce in 2021 have already been pre-ordered
<https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/11/12/rich-countries-grab-half-of-projected-covid-19-vaccine-supply>,
mostly by these countries, with 13% of the global population.

Thirty two European and other rich countries also have options to order more
<https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03370-6>, while Australia and
Canada have already secured supplies enough for five times their populations
<https://www.sbs.com.au/news/rich-countries-are-stockpiling-coronavirus-vaccines-and-poor-nations-are-lagging-behind>.
Poor countries, often charged higher prices, simply cannot compete.

Big Pharma has also refused
<https://www.ifpma.org/resource-centre/global-biopharma-ceo-top-executives-covid-19-media-briefing-28-may-2020/>
to
join the voluntary knowledge sharing and patent pooling COVID-19 Technology
Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative under WHO auspices. Thomas Cueni,
International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations
(IFPMA) Director General, snubbed the launch, claiming he was “too busy
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/patent-pool-potential-covid-19-products-nonsense-pharma-leaders/>
”.

Pfizer’s CEO dismissed
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/patent-pool-potential-covid-19-products-nonsense-pharma-leaders/>
C-TAP
as “nonsense” and “dangerous”, while the AstraZeneca CEO insisted, “IP is a
fundamental part of our industry”. Such attitudes help explain some
problems of alternative vaccine distribution arrangements such as COVAX
<https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.m4853>. According to its own board,
there is a high chance that COVAX could fail
<https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-who-vaccines-exclusiv/exclusive-who-vaccine-scheme-risks-failure-leaving-poor-countries-no-covid-shots-until-2024-idUSKBN28Q1LF>
.

*Suppressing vaccine access*
Despite knowing that many developing countries have much idle capacity
<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-20/how-we-end-the-covid-pandemic-around-the-world-in-months/13260178>
, Cueni
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/10/opinion/coronavirus-vaccine-patents.html>
falsely
claims the waiver “would do nothing to expand access to vaccines or to
boost global manufacturing capacity”, and would jeopardise innovation and
vaccine research.

Big Pharma claims
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/developing-countries-push-to-limit-patent-protections-for-covid-vaccines-11600355170>
manufacturing
vaccines via compulsory licensing or a TRIPS waiver “would undermine
innovation and raise the risk of unsafe viruses”. US Big Pharma
representatives wrote to President Biden
<https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56465395> earlier this month claiming
likewise.

Both Salk
<https://www.ipeg.com/jonas-salk-inventor-of-the-polio-vaccine-could-you-patent-the-sun/>
 and Sabin <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Sabin> made their polio
vaccine discoveries patent-free, while many contemporary vaccine
researchers are against Big Pharma’s greedy conduct only rewarding IP
holders regardless of the varied, but crucial contributions of others.

*Big Pharma’s price gouging*
Vaccine companies require contract prices be kept secret
<https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/19/969529969/price-check-nations-pay-wildly-different-prices-for-vaccines>.
In return for discounts, the EU agreed to keep prices confidential
<https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n281>. Nonetheless, some negotiated
prices were inadvertently revealed
<https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n281>, with a UNICEF chart listing
prices from various sources.

Reputedly the cheapest vaccine available, Oxford-Astra Zeneca’s is sold to
EU members for around US$2 each. Although trials were done in South Africa,
it still pays more than twice
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/22/south-africa-paying-more-than-double-eu-price-for-oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine>
as
much, while Uganda
<https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/02/19/969529969/price-check-nations-pay-wildly-different-prices-for-vaccines>,
even poorer, pays over four times as much!

US negotiated bulk prices
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/opinion/covid-vaccine-big-pharma.html>,
for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, are much higher, at
US$15.25–19.50 per dose in several contracts, yielding 60–80% profit
margins! Moderna will
<https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/17/opinion/covid-vaccine-big-pharma.html>
charge
the rest of the world US$25–37 per dose.

*Hypocrisy*
Quite understandably, most developed countries opposing temporary TRIPS
suspension have provisions in their own IP laws to suspend patent
protection in the national interest and for public health emergencies.

Canada, Germany, France and others have recently strengthened their patent
laws to issue compulsory licences for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. European
Council President Charles Michel announced that the EU could adopt “urgent
measures
<https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=108821817457975&story_fbid=240423370964485>”
by invoking emergency provisions in its treaties.

Similarly, in the US, 28 US Code sec. 1498 (a) allows the government to
make or use any invention without the patentee’s permission. To handle
emergencies, the 1977 UK Patents Act (section 55) allows the government to
sell a patented product, including specific drugs, medicines or medical
devices, without the patentee’s consent.

When avian flu threatened early this century, the US was the only country
in the world to issue compulsory licences to US manufacturers to produce
Tamiflu to protect its entire population of over 300 million. The drugs
were not used as the virus was not brought over either Pacific or Atlantic
Oceans.

*Biden must act*
By helping developing countries expand vaccine manufacturing capacity and
access existing capacity, US President Biden can earn much world
appreciation overnight. US law and precedence enables such a unilateral
initiative.

The Bayh-Dole Act allows the US government to require the owner or
exclusive licensee of a patent, created with federal funding, to grant a
third party a licence to an invention. Moderna received about US$2.5
billion from Operation Warp Speed, which dispensed over US$10 billion.

Moderna was founded in 2010 by university researchers with support from a
venture capitalist. It has focused on mRNA technology, building on earlier
work by University of Pennsylvania scientists with National Institutes for
Health (NIH) funding.

The vaccine developer also used technology for previous coronavirus
vaccines developed by the NIH. The NIH also provided extensive logistical
support, overseeing clinical trials for tens of thousands. Moderna has
already announced it will not enforce its patents
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-08/moderna-won-t-enforce-patents-on-covid-vaccines-during-pandemic>
during
the pandemic.

Thus, POTUS has the needed leverage
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/08/pandemic-covid-biden-developing-developed-countries/>.
The Bayh-Dole Act applies to Moderna’s vaccine, enabling the Biden
administration to act independently and decisively against vaccine
apartheid.

*Sharing knowledge crucial*
Developing countries not only need to have the right to produce vaccines,
but also the requisite technical knowledge and information. Hence, the
Biden administration should also support C-TAP, as recommended by Dr
Anthony Fauci.

When the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) was in similar trouble, the Obama
administration came forward
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/08/pandemic-covid-biden-developing-developed-countries/>
to
put US-owned patents into the pool while encouraging drug companies to help
improve developing countries’ access to medicines.

President Biden knows that early US support was critical for the MPP’s
eventual success
<https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/08/pandemic-covid-biden-developing-developed-countries/>.
It dramatically increased production and lowered prices of medicines for
HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases in developing
countries.

https://www.ksjomo.org/post/end-vaccine-apartheid-before-millions-more-die

http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/03/end-vaccine-apartheid-millions-die/
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