The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has welcomed a decision by the United States to back intellectual property waivers for coronavirus vaccines, calling it “a monumental moment” in the fight against the deadly virus.
WHO Executive Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday commended the Biden administration’s support for waiving intellectual property rights as an example of “leadership to address global health challenges”.
US President Joe Biden has faced increased pressure to back a World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal to waive the patents, a move that would allow more countries to manufacture much-needed COVID-19 jabs.
“Now let’s all move together swiftly, in solidarity, building on the ingenuity & commitment of scientists who produced life-saving #COVID19 vaccines,” Tedros tweeted.
This is a monumental moment in the fight against #COVID19. The commitment by @POTUS Joe Biden & @USTradeRep @AmbassadorTai to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of 🇺🇸 leadership to address global health challenges. pic.twitter.com/3iBt3jfdEr
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) May 5, 2021
Biden, who has overseen a rapid roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in the US, has faced growing calls to do more to support global vaccine equity and share the country’s vaccine supply with other hard-hit nations.
Dozens of countries, as well as rights groups, former world leaders and public health experts, have ramped up their calls for the patent waiver in recent weeks amid a deadly COVID-19 surge in several countries.
In a statement earlier on Tuesday, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Washington would engage in negotiations with the WTO on the waivers.
“Those negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved,” Tai said.
Over the weekend, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain had said Tai would hold talks with the WTO “on how we can get this vaccine more widely distributed, more widely licensed, more widely shared”.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said Biden faced pressure from members of his own Democratic Party to back patent waivers for the vaccines.
“It is something that President Biden had promised during his campaign,” Hanna said. “However, since he’s come to office, there has been a great deal of pressure as well on the other side, from many pharmaceutical companies, not to carry through this waiver.”
He added that the WTO, which operates on a consensus basis, must now get together to negotiate a text that all the member countries would have to agree to.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of work … before this becomes a reality. But the Biden administration decision is something that gives this immense momentum,” Hanna said.
In October of last year, South Africa and India submitted a request to the WTO to waive intellectual property rights on vaccines and other medical technologies needed to combat the coronavirus. More than 100 other countries have since supported that call.
“Given this present context of global emergency, it is important for WTO Members to work together to ensure that intellectual property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information do not create barriers to the timely access to affordable medical products,” the October letter reads.
The demand for waivers has grown in urgency as several countries, including India, are dealing with devastating COVID-19 surges.
In April, non-governmental organisation Doctors Without Borders called on wealthy nations “to stand on the right side of history and join hands with those in support” of the patent waiver.
After the US announcement, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations said waiving patents on COVID-19 vaccines was “the wrong answer” to a complex problem and called for more technology transfer agreements, Reuters news agency reported.
“Waiving patents of COVID-19 vaccines will not increase production nor provide practical solutions needed to battle this global health crisis. On the contrary, it is likely to lead to disruption,” the IFPMA, which represents research-based pharmaceutical companies, said in a statement.
But others welcomed the Biden administration’s move, with British Labour Party MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy calling on the UK government “to get behind an IP waiver to speed up vaccine rollout in low-income countries and limit the chance of new variants emerging”.
