October 10, 2022
With the backing of President Biden, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has taken steps to tear down a key pillar of global medical research: intellectual property (IP) rights. On June 17, 2022, the World Trade Organization authorized a limited TRIPS Waiver, which allows developing countries to use patented COVID-19 vaccine technology without the approval of the company that worked hard to produce it. This decision was an unnecessary and devastating move that only works to remove the incentives for companies to create future cutting-edge medical technology. However, the WTO isn’t planning on stopping there.They want to take it even further and waive IP rights for all COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics.
The limited TRIPS Waiver passed in June may be narrow in scope, but its destructive potential could be widely felt. Efforts to expand such a policy are wildly reckless. By making COVID-19 vaccine technology available for the taking, the WTO initiated an erosion of IP protections that could have a hazardous impact on medical innovation. On average, drug companies invest over $2 billion and 15 years into developing a new drug. These companies would be far less likely to risk so much on research when they can’t even be sure their discoveries will be protected. In this environment, there is little incentive to make the kind of investments necessary for such developments as the COVID-19 vaccine itself. Continuing to remove IP protections for diagnostics and therapeutics would only take us further down this destructive path. Just imagine the implications for future advancements in our fight against diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s to cancer.
The TRIPS Waiver has been deeply misguided from the beginning as it fails to address the underlying issues preventing an effective global response to the pandemic. Specifically, the decision wrongly assumes that these countries suffer from a lack of supply of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.On the contrary, many developing countries are facing such a large surplus of vaccines that they have had to destroy them or let them expire.In Nigeria, for example, nearly 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines expired before use in November 2021.
Many countries are even rejectingoffers of additional supply, forcing some vaccine production to shut down. Last year,the African CDC acknowledged this reality and identified the actual challenges they face, specifically severe vaccine hesitancy and logistical hurdles. The WTO blatantly ignores these facts and refuses to address the real reasons behind low vaccination rates and unsuccessful COVID-19 responses in developing countries.
The TRIPS Waiver was the wrong solution for the wrong problem. Now, the WTO wants to double down on this failing approach and expand its assault on the driving forces behind medical progress.Despite these fundamental flaws, the Biden administration continues to entertain these plans with further discussions.The impact of such a naive policy might not be reversible and would come with long-term consequences. Consider what the next pandemic will look like without the incentives for cutting-edge, innovative technology. President Biden must protect American lives and oppose any form of the TRIPS Waiver’s expansion.
