Intellectual Property Rights and COVID-19

May 06, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken more lives than any war, humanitarian disaster and natural disaster. As people continue to die by the thousands every day there is little hope for an end in sight unless leaders around the world can more together in a spirit of cooperation to tackle this crisis. Today, the global public outcry is even more vociferous on the demand for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive the rigid patient on Intellectual Property (IP) so that more manufacturers around the world can produce the COVID-19 vaccine.
Early in its formation, the WTO adopted Trade related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) that granted patent rights to researchers and companies around the world as an incentive to encourage higher investments on research that would encourage greater innovation. However, very early in the adoption of IP rights the WTO realised that implementation would be lopsided and cumbersome since the poor lack the resource and infrastructure to register their patents. Moreover, many poor countries were already shortchanged by not initially registering their local products.
Early in the new millennium, implementation of IP came under intense scrutiny as the AIDS crises escalated and developing countries led by South Africa campaigned for the waiver of the rigid patent rights. The WTO eventually agreed that a waiver should be granted to government to override IP in public health emergencies to produce generic drugs. Today the global economy is facing even greater health crises and COVID-19 is even more fatal but the WTO is yet to ameliorate public outcry. The Financial Times 03/05/21 reported that the World Health Organisation last year attempted to encourage the pooling of IP –COVID -19 Technology Access Pool – to speed up production of vaccine but received limited interest from countries and companies holding IP rights.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs, pointed out that the pharmaceutical companies argued than an IP waiver would deprive the industry of its rightful profits-a claim he described as exaggerated and reflected greed over reason. The IP held by Moderna and Pfizer is not the result of those companies’ innovation but academic research by the National Institute of Health (NIH). The scientific breakthrough of mRNA vaccines was achieved by two researchers working under NIH grants at the University of Pennsylvania. The University still owns the key patents that were sub-licensed to Pfizer and Moderna Professor Sachs argued. It should be noted that the major financing that successfully brought the COVID-19 vaccine to the table was innovation by public institutions financed by hard-earned taxpayers’ dollar.
US President, Joe Biden, is coming under increased pressure from the international community and progressive Democrats to increase supply and release the patents on coronavirus vaccines. Earlier this week President Biden’s chief medical adviser on the pandemic argued that drug companies must act by either expanding manufacturing capacities to supply other nations at an extremely diminished price or transfer the technology to let the developing world make cheap copies. A hallmark of the Biden administration is the efficiency in getting the vaccine to people, which led to a decline in the infection rate in US. However, the US will not be out of the woods if Covid remains in other parts of the world. This effort should be replicated globally.
Finally, this global crisis now demands a global solution. Popular novelist, Arundhati Roy, described the implosion of Covid-19 as a crime against humanity. The pandemic demands that government and pharmaceutical companies put people before profit. The Covid-19 vaccine is a global public good that should be accessible to all.
Yours truly,
Rajendra Rampersaud

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