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You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Biden Administration Supports The Waiver Of IP Protection On Covid Vaccines

Biden Administration Supports The Waiver Of IP Protection On Covid Vaccines

by Cheryl Rofer|  May 5, 20213:42 pm| 43 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Open Threads

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Just tweeted —

These extraordinary times and circumstances of call for extraordinary measures.

The US supports the waiver of IP protections on COVID-19 vaccines to help end the pandemic and we’ll actively participate in @WTO negotiations to make that happen. pic.twitter.com/96ERlboZS8

— Ambassador Katherine Tai (@AmbassadorTai) May 5, 2021

It’s not clear to me how much of a problem this is, which is why I haven’t said much about it, but now it’s no longer an issue to be fought over in the media. The Biden administration is focusing on the reality – getting the vaccines to people.

Open Thread!

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Previous Post: « If My Brain Interprets It As Something Where I Fits, I Sits (Open Thread)
Next Post: But, But, Stigma, HIPAA, mah Freedoms! »

Reader Interactions

43Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    May 5, 2021 at 3:47 pm

    What are text-based negotiations?

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    May 5, 2021 at 3:50 pm

    This is good! But yeah, I don’t know either how many of the production constraints are hard supply chain bottlenecks, as opposed to a question of IP. (I think you have a post about this recently?)

  3. 3.

    Cheryl Rofer

    May 5, 2021 at 4:01 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: It’s a real hot-button issue, and I don’t know enough to say much definitively. I posted about production a few days ago.

    I’ve seen nobody address which manufacturers are holding back because of IP issues or how many doses that might free up. It’s possible that some of the Indian manufacturers don’t want to invest in the renovations and new equipment until they see a route to using it after the pandemic. Which a waiver for the duration of the pandemic might not address.

    Vaccines have very different production requirements from other pharmaceuticals, and the mRNA vaccines have yet another set of requirements. For many years, vaccine development and production have received short shrift from Big Pharma because they aren’t a big profit center. One dose per person every year or more. But ED enhancers? Every night, baby!

    It’s going to be interesting to see how much resistance Big Pharma and smaller companies that supply part of the ingredients put up to this. Moderna is part of the way there, but they have suppliers who may not be. If I were them, I’d go along, but their history is of being very protective of their IP. Too protective, which is part of what drives up the price of insulin, for example.

  4. 4.

    Cheryl Rofer

    May 5, 2021 at 4:09 pm

    @WaterGirl: I don’t know

  5. 5.

    Benw

    May 5, 2021 at 4:14 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: if it’s not a big $ maker, seems like a no brainer from a PR/goodwill perspective to give out the formula for just one vaccine

  6. 6.

    Old School

    May 5, 2021 at 4:15 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Per Wikipedia:

    Text-based negotiation refers to the process of working up the text of an agreement which all parties are willing to accept and sign up to. Negotiating parties may begin with a draft text, consider new textual suggestions and work to find the middle ground among various differing positions.

  7. 7.

    Old School

    May 5, 2021 at 4:18 pm

    Per Wikipedia:

    Text-based negotiation refers to the process of working up the text of an agreement which all parties are willing to accept and sign up to. Negotiating parties may begin with a draft text, consider new textual suggestions and work to find the middle ground among various differing positions.

  8. 8.

    Gravenstone

    May 5, 2021 at 4:19 pm

    @Benw: Formula is one thing. Technology is likely another. And if the mRNA approach becomes as widespread as it appears it might, I imagine some companies will be loathe to share proprietary methods to future competitors. I suspect that will be the most difficult needle to thread in these negotiations.

  9. 9.

    Mike J

    May 5, 2021 at 4:20 pm

    @Major Major Major Major: And some of those supply chain bottlenecks are IP constrained too.

  10. 10.

    Cheryl Rofer

    May 5, 2021 at 4:20 pm

    This is silly – they will still make tons of money, just fewer than otherwise.

    Pfizer, Biontech, Novavax, Moderna shares plunge to session lows after U.S. backs waiving patent protections on Covid vaccines https://t.co/Wq9i3OsP1j pic.twitter.com/gEPwFw4yOg

    — CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) May 5, 2021

  11. 11.

    Baud

    May 5, 2021 at 4:29 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    just fewer than otherwise.

    That’s why the stocks are at session lows. I don’t know what’s silly about it.

    ETA: My guess is that they will rise again, or at least stabilize.

  12. 12.

    Spanky

    May 5, 2021 at 4:30 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Trust the stock market to always stampede in fear at the slightest whiff of loss. Any kind of loss.

    Stocks will bounce back within the week.

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    May 5, 2021 at 4:30 pm

    TFG reacts to Facebook, via JL Cauvin
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya0UDqVw6zI

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    May 5, 2021 at 4:32 pm

    I hope this takes wing (fin) because investigating Trump’s Interior Department will uncover deep corruption.

    On Monday May 3rd, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA), the West Coast’s largest trade organization of small-scale commercial fishermen and women, signed on to a letter asking Representative Katie Porter (D – Ca 45th) in her capacity as Vice Chair of the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Chair of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, to open an investigation into Reclamation’s manipulation of government cost accounting standards and its own longstanding criteria for allocating costs owed by Central Valley Project water and power contractors (Contractors).

    The Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Public Law 102-575 Title XXIV (1992) (CVPIA) “made unprecedented changes to federal reclamation law. First, the CVPIA made environmental restoration a purpose of the Central Valley Project (CVP). Second, it mandated a comprehensive suite of environmental restoration actions, among them restoration of the rights of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in the Trinity River fishery, which the United States holds in trust, and which West Coast sport and commercial fishing enterprises, among others, have an interest. The CVPIA also established restoration measures for fisheries and wildlife refuges in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River watersheds of California’s Central Valley. Third, the CVPIA required the Contractors, not the taxpayers, to pay for restoration as their cost of doing business.”

    We believe such an investigation would show the changes in accounting standards resulted in the “shift of at least $400 million in current debt from the [Central Valley Water] Contractors to Federal taxpayers.” This, in our view, results in an unconscionable financial windfall to the Contractors, whose activities continue to have severe and adverse impacts on California’s salmon populations, our members and dependent fishing communities; such impacts to be magnified under the current drought conditions.

    “Reclamation’s illegal action has resulted in over promising and undercharging for publicly owned water supplies, said Mike Conroy, PCFFA’s Executive Director. “Rescinding these bloated water contracts is essential to protecting fishing jobs and food sources for communities in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. “

    Additionally, “a series of Interior Department memoranda [were issued] that wrongfully and unlawfully declared the environmental restoration mandates of the CVPIA to have been fulfilled.” Clearly this is not the case.

    “The Administration has the opportunity, the obligation, to immediately and thoroughly overturn the actions which stick taxpayers with past debts incurred by Central Valley Contractors. To claim that CVPIA restoration activities are fulfilled is laughable,” added Mike Conroy, Executive Director of PCFFA. “Failing to charge for this required mitigation and restoration has ensured the anadromous fish doubling goals have not been met.”

    And of course, camera time for Katie Porter and her white board. :-)

  15. 15.

    Barbara

    May 5, 2021 at 4:33 pm

    I suspect that manufacturers are unlikely to go along with this for countries that have the wherewithal right now to produce vaccines and who might be perceived as calling for this for future competitive reasons. In other words, India’s current crisis isn’t caused by inability to produce vaccines and won’t be solved by dropping IP protections, and in the long run it already has the capacity to produce vaccines — it was planning to do so for the rest of the developing world until it became clear that it needed every vaccine it produced for its own population. On the other hand, giving South Africa, Brazil, and many other countries the ability to manufacture their own vaccines would definitely help bring the pandemic under control in countries where vaccine supply is basically at the mercy of other nations. And I still think that there is a risk of the worst case scenario, countries spending a lot of resources to manufacture vaccines and failing at some point or another.

  16. 16.

    Major Major Major Major

    May 5, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: As I saw somebody note on Twitter, this is also being reported in a silly fashion. Why, Pfizer’s share price hasn’t been this low since *checks ticker* yesterday!

  17. 17.

    MattF

    May 5, 2021 at 4:34 pm

    Looks like Chernobyl may be back in the news.

  18. 18.

    WhatsMyNym

    May 5, 2021 at 4:39 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Pfizer, Biontech, Novavax, Moderna shares plunge to session lows…

    Plunge only applies to today’s market. They are all still at/near record highs. Actually looks like the day traders were left high & dry when volume suddenly pfizzled and they had to dump today’s buying.​
    ETA: Ex-Dividend Date tomorrow for Pfizer, and Earnings Date for Moderna. So completely expected price behaviors anyway.

    ETA: minor edits

  19. 19.

    Anoniminous

    May 5, 2021 at 4:42 pm

    There are more mRNA vaccines in the pipeline.  For example, Moderna has one for influenza and another for AIDS.  It’s not inconceivable an mRNA vaccine for some cancers could be on the horizon.  And then there is mRNA medicine delivery using extracellular vesicles which is only at the bare beginnings of investigation.

    Companies aren’t going to give-up their entire future just because.

  20. 20.

    Major Major Major Major

    May 5, 2021 at 4:45 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    Companies aren’t going to give-up their entire future just because.

    Especially companies like m[ode]RNA, which were created for the specific purpose of researching mRNA vaccines…

  21. 21.

    Anoniminous

    May 5, 2021 at 4:46 pm

    @Major Major Major Major:

    The entirety of the financial press could be run over by a bus and the only result would be a slight, but still significant, rise in the global IQ.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    May 5, 2021 at 4:49 pm

    @Anoniminous:

    Truth

  23. 23.

    WhatsMyNym

    May 5, 2021 at 4:53 pm

    @Anoniminous:   CNBC =   buy, buy, buy…

    …oops

  24. 24.

    VeniceRiley

    May 5, 2021 at 4:54 pm

    What is the exposure to getting fleeced on future mRNA vaccines once the tech is widely distributed?

  25. 25.

    Steve in the ATL

    May 5, 2021 at 4:58 pm

    @WaterGirl: mostly emojis, selfies, and pics of their dinner

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack

    May 5, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Thank you for being our Cauvin whisperer. I keep forgetting to check on him. Which reminds me: need to check on @BrentTerhune and @BlaireErskine.

    . . . Brent explains crytocurrency! “It’s like an NFT but for money.”

  27. 27.

    rikyrah

    May 5, 2021 at 5:05 pm

     

    John Aravosis ?????️‍? (@aravosis) tweeted at 2:19 PM on Wed, May 05, 2021:
    McConnell admits that congressional Republicans’ only goal is to “stop” Biden’s administration. Every time a Democrat gets elected to the White House, is the same thing from Republicans: they admit that they have no interest in getting anything done. https://t.co/NHAsSAlVhD
    (https://twitter.com/aravosis/status/1390023431735975936?s=03)

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    May 5, 2021 at 5:07 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: To me, making big bank on vaccines in a pandemic feels like it’s in the same neighborhood as war profiteering, so I don’t think they have much ground to stand on as they complain.

    Plus, big pharma like Pfizer should be thanking their lucky stars that this has helped repair their below-ground-level reputations with the general public.  That should be profit enough!

  29. 29.

    sdhays

    May 5, 2021 at 5:08 pm

    @MattF: Yikes!

  30. 30.

    WaterGirl

    May 5, 2021 at 5:09 pm

    @Steve in the ATL: hahahahaha

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    May 5, 2021 at 5:11 pm

    @MattF: I’m not sure where the appropriate place my reaction should fall on the continuum.  I am alternating between “interesting” and “holy fuck”.

  32. 32.

    Cheryl Rofer

    May 5, 2021 at 5:31 pm

    Not taking it gracefully

    .@phrma is pissed. Statement from Stephen Ubl: “This change in longstanding American policy will not save lives. It also flies in the face of President Biden’s stated policy of building up American infrastructure and creating jobs …" pic.twitter.com/czamoT6qco

    — Daniel Marans (@danielmarans) May 5, 2021

  33. 33.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    May 5, 2021 at 5:41 pm

    Random thought: it seems the right incentive here might be to have some reimbursement program for the vaccines giving up patent protection, where the overall winner in doses manufactured and delivered without royalties gets the highest payout. I mean, make sure there’s a pot of money for everyone – you don’t ever want to say “give up 100% of your royalties because we said so” – but make the #1 or 1&2 top doses delivered, royalty free, prize worth enough that it’s worth risking a few gambles, like helping some of the less wealthy countries actually get people vaccinated.

    The Biden administration could also make a grand show of pushing back against participation of vaccine distributors who didn’t provide efficacy and safety reporting early on – boy, the Republicans would have a field day between “he’s putting pressure on China (which the Trumpsuckers love) and Russia (which the Trumpsuckers hate) so how do we say he’s a horrible human being, trying to destroy every aspect of American life?”

  34. 34.

    dm

    May 5, 2021 at 5:43 pm

    @Anoniminous: “mRNA” is not what’s patented nor patentable.  It’s *this* configuration of mRNA for *this* purpose.  Future mRNA vaccines will still be protected even if the patents for COVID vaccines are waived (I am not a lawyer, I suppose the law might surprise me on this).

    This is why Moderna waived the IP rights for their vaccine a while back (of course, it was a moderately empty gesture because there were a lot of other patents in the way).

    I suppose the company with the patent on the liposome delivery system might be one that would see their future mRNA prospects dim.

  35. 35.

    matt

    May 5, 2021 at 6:15 pm

    I bet patent protections were in place long enough to give the rights holders an insurmountable head start.

  36. 36.

    Cheryl Rofer

    May 5, 2021 at 6:16 pm

    Thread

    I continue to say that this is not the bottleneck for vaccine production, and will not lead to anything like a sudden surge of worldwide availability. It's not that simple. But for those who wanted this, you have it. https://t.co/f0fVuXdUgk

    — Derek Lowe (@Dereklowe) May 5, 2021

  37. 37.

    different-church-lady

    May 5, 2021 at 6:17 pm

    now it’s no longer an issue to be fought over in the media

    I am increasingly bugged by the idea that all of our current social conflicts are being driven by the media believing that conflict is the route to profitability.

  38. 38.

    different-church-lady

    May 5, 2021 at 6:18 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: “Nice vaccination program you’ve got here. Shame if something were to happen to it…”

  39. 39.

    different-church-lady

    May 5, 2021 at 6:19 pm

    IT’S LIKE BIDEN IS MORE SOCIALIST THAN THE GODDAMNED PANTSY-ANSTS TWITTER SOCIALISTS!!!

    (DCL + SOME VACCINE AND A LOT OF OTHER STUFF…)

  40. 40.

    Ken

    May 5, 2021 at 6:22 pm

    @Anoniminous: The entirety of the financial press could be run over by a bus and the only result would be a slight, but still significant, rise in the global IQ.

    We would also lose the daily Mad-Libs they play, based on the template  “(category) stocks were (adverb) (direction) today on the news that (random event)“.

    Tech stocks were sharply up today on the news that baseball is re-evaluating the designated hitter rule.

  41. 41.

    sdhays

    May 5, 2021 at 6:28 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer: Biden’s team knows all of this, so I expect that they have thoughts on addressing these other challenges. I wonder how much more could have been ramped up in 2020 with competent American leadership.

  42. 42.

    Cheryl Rofer

    May 5, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    @sdhays: I’m concerned that when this doesn’t make a difference in India or Brazil, there will be more recriminations.

    The fact is that not much will make a difference in India or Brazil for months or more. We can send, and are sending, humanitarian help in the form of oxygen and hospital supplies, and those will save a few lives. But once the virus is that badly out of control, there’s not much anyone can do.

    The fact is, as Derek Lowe says in his thread at 36, vaccine production is limited. It will take months to build additional capacity.

    We shall see if this helps. But I have my doubts.

  43. 43.

    J R in WV

    May 5, 2021 at 8:49 pm

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I remember reading (or perhaps hearing on MSNBC, Rachael or Chris in the evenings) that we could be landing C-5As full of vaccine in every airport in India, and it would take months to make a difference in the rate of infection and subsequent death.

    A C-5A is the largest cargo plane in the US inventory and could deliver millions of doses, if we had that many available to deliver, which we don’t. No one does.

    India’s problem is like ours with the former guy, he (Modi) allowed the virus to run rampant through his nation with no encouragement for the people to stay home, no program to deliver food to people sheltering in place, no mask requirements, not only allowing giant religious gatherings but encouraging them even as it was obvious that they would be super-spreader events.

    Sort of like spring break, but for many times as many people, more crowded than our beaches. Amazing to see the video of those crowds, pressed together, chanting and singing, spreading droplets laden with viral particles…

    I hope Modi reaps what he has sown in the crowds. I’m sorry for the people of India whom he is riding into the ground. I have many friends from India who came here to work with us, I hope their families came behind them to be safer here, now that the former guy is out of work. That was all in the long ago now that I’m an old…

    ETA:

    Not to mention the lack of planning to provide O2 to hospitals, gloves, masks, gowns, etc. No planning of any sort to cope with anything at all. Just party like — weil like nothing was wrong at all, things should just go on like always and no one would suffer and die at all.

    Oops. We came so close to that end right here…

    And evidently many of the Q folks, and RWNJ fools believe that the tragedy in India and Brazil is another hoax. We shouldn’t take any of that into account, it isn’t the fate we avoided by the skin of our teeth. Just more mainstream news hoax, because it isn’t on their news feed from hell. Good grief, Charley Brown.

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