Hayley Serpa/Staff Writer
Since the first Covid-19 vaccines were manufactured early this year, national governments worldwide have been scrambling to obtain the different resources necessary to vaccinate their citizens and stabilize their economies. Quickly realizing the international market’s need for a novel coronavirus vaccine, different corporations such as Pfizer and Moderna would rapidly manufacture the vaccine and purchase exclusive patents, selling their vaccines to the international community. Yet, as new coronavirus variants are detected and there are surges in Covid-19 cases in lower-income countries, many have identified the restrictions imposed upon vaccine manufacturers by intellectual property law as the main obstacle to global vaccination and rightfully argue for the waiving of vaccine patents.
Discussion of the waiving of vaccine patents during the pandemic would be first proposed in October 2020 by South Africa and India. They would first come about due to the severe inequity seen between the vaccination rates of countries of the developed Global North and of the developing Global South. For example, as of early May 2021, the U.S. was at over 30% fully vaccinated while less than 2% of India’s population is vaccinated. Unable to access the vaccine, over 28 million cases of coronavirus would be reported in India and over 341,000 deaths. A similar divide between countries of the Global North and Global South can be seen in the environment, where climate debt makes low-income, developing countries the main victims of climate change while high-income, developed countries remain unaffected.
According to one of the South African representatives at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Council, where the Covid-19 vaccine patents ban is being presented and discussed, the waiver proposal “opens space for further collaboration, for the transfer of technology and for more products (vaccines and medical supplies) to come in” in a shorter amount of time. The latest revised vaccine waiver proposal was presented on May 21st to the TRIPS council, with clauses ensuring that the waiver proposal would be active for at least three years after its ratification with yearly reviews by the General Council. As of now, the proposal continues to be debated in the WTO, notorious for the long time it takes to pass resolutions, and revisions are sure to be made again before the final vote is called.
Most of the low-income and middle-income countries support this proposal but high-income countries including the member states of the European Union and the United Kingdom, as well as the pharmaceutical companies and health industries involved, vehemently oppose any amendment of vaccine patents. Instead, they argue that intellectual property law and the profits that exist within the related industries actually promote the development of technology like the Covid-19 vaccine. They also claim that it has not been patents holding back vaccine manufacturers but rather the low manufacturing capacity that exists worldwide. Only recently has the U.S. promised to support the efforts being made by more than 100 low- and middle-income countries in the WTO to change intellectual property law concerning vaccine patents, a severe hit for the powerful pharmaceutical lobby within the United States.
Yet, despite the arguments put forward by those against the vaccine patent waiver proposal, thousands continue to die and suffer around the world from lack of access to the novel coronavirus vaccine. The waiver proposal offers a solution to increasing vaccine development and research, ensuring that vaccines are not just hoarded by high-income countries who were able to purchase them first from the private corporations that profit from keeping their patents exclusive. It seeks to lessen the severity of the health gap that exists between the developed countries able to purchase vaccines easily early on in the pandemic and the developing countries who were not afforded the same luxury. If we hope to soon see an entire Earth vaccinated, vaccine patents will have to be waived immediately.
DISCLAIMER:
The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.
About Post Author
