If you’re among the 81% of Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19, you probably remember your first dose. Perhaps you snapped a selfie on your way out of the vaccine clinic. California Sen. Alex Padilla took things a step further and shared a video on Facebook encouraging his constituents to get the jab.
No matter what vaccine you won or how long you waited, you probably would have felt relief when you looked at your newly bandaged arm and realized, after months of lockdown, that things were starting to get back to normal.
These vaccines found their way into the arms of Americans in record time because their creators knew they would retain the rights to their inventions during the pandemic and beyond, and that they would have the ability to monetize the countless hours and billions of dollars they invested in their development. to them.
But those intellectual asset protections are under threat. The World Trade Organization is a proposal this month that would waive intellectual asset rights to COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics. This would harm the interests not only of cutting-edge U. S. companies, but also of patients around the world. the world that counts on them to produce innovative therapies.
At issue is the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS. It’s a treaty among the member nations of the World Trade Organization that establishes minimum standards for respecting IP rights.
In 2022, WTO member countries agreed to a waiver from the TRIPS Agreement for COVID-19 vaccines. The argument that emerging countries did not have easy access to vaccines. They were looking for the option to make them profitable to distribute them to their countries. own population. But they needed permission from the WTO member countries to forget about the protections of the intellectual assets that support these vaccines.
No country has yet benefited from this exemption. In fact, generating enough vaccines to meet demand has never been a problem. Stockpiling and distributing COVID vaccines was a challenge for emerging countries. Relinquishing rights to intellectual assets does not solve those problems.
In fact, India’s largest COVID vaccine manufacturer halted production in 2022 because it had a surplus of two hundred million doses.
Unfortunately, that 2022 vaccine waiver opened the door to scrapping IP rights in other instances. COVID-19 therapeutics and diagnostics are the target this time around.
This years-long attack on intellectual asset rights is troubling. Patent cancellation has not allowed patients to access COVID vaccines more quickly. And that possibly wouldn’t be the case with COVID testing or treatments. But this would have devastating consequences for medical studies. and development.
On average, it takes about $3 billion and 15 years to expand a new drug. Manufacturers and investors are willing to make that commitment when they have a moderate chance of making a profit in the long run.
The revocation of patents will be an incentive to invest in drug studies and development. The natural result will be a reduction in the number of new therapies, and this will worsen the situation for patients in the long term.
There will also be short-term consequences. Many of the remedies that scientists are applying against COVID may also have programs for other diseases. If WTO member countries allow intellectual assets to violate those remedies, pharmaceutical corporations will slow down, if not stop, the investigation of those additional claims. The remedies may remain unknown.
A TRIPS waiver would also weaken America’s security and economy. It would signal that foreign countries have a claim on whatever American researchers develop—they need only appeal to the WTO’s member nations for a green light to seize it.
The U. S. biopharmaceutical industry generates billions of dollars in economic output and millions of jobs. In California alone, the sector supports about 700,000 jobs and generates more than $238 billion in economic output.
Robust protections for IP are necessary preconditions for all those jobs and economic activity—not to mention the biomedical innovations we often take for granted. America’s leaders must speak out for our nation’s interests—and against a TRIPS waiver—before the WTO’s member nations this month.