[CTC] Statements on TRIPS Waiver Announcement

Wed May 5 17:18:44 PDT 2021

Here are some of the initial statements.  The CTC statement circulated earlier is online here <https://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/bidens-support-for-trips-waiver-unquestionably-the-right-thing-to-do/>.

 Biden Administration Reverses Trump’s Self-Defeating Blockage of Temporary COVID-19 Waiver of WTO Intellectual Property Barriers 

U.S. Joins 100-Plus WTO Countries Supporting Waiver, Calls for More Production of Vaccines Worldwide to End Extreme COVID-19 Vaccine Shortage 
For Immediate Release:
May 5, 2021 

Contact: Matthew Groch, mgroch at citizen.org <mailto:mgroch at citizen.org>, (202) 454-5111
Mike Stankiewicz, mstankiewicz at citizen.org <mailto:mstankiewicz at citizen.org>, (202) 588-7742 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Biden administration announced it would support a temporary waiver of intellectual property (IP) barriers to facilitate more production of COVID-19 vaccines and would enter into textual negotiations on a World Trade Organization (WTO) waiver proposal initiated by South Africa and India. The announcement comes after intensive U.S. and global campaigning. Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, issued the following statement:

“Thank you, President Biden and USTR Katherine Tai, for prioritizing saving human lives and livelihoods and cutting through Big Pharma’s lies and threats to fight for the speediest possible end to the unprecedented threats posed to all Americans and people worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be critical that U.S. engagement in WTO negotiations leads to the fastest possible agreement on a waiver text that encompasses COVID-19 vaccines and diagnostic tests to prevent virus spread and treatments to save the lives of those engulfed in raging outbreaks around the world.

“By fighting for the rest of the world to have access to vaccines as we have in the U.S., the Biden administration is recognizing that ‘no one is safe until we are all vaccinated’ is more than a slogan, given COVID-19 outbreaks anyplace could hatch vaccine-resistant variants that sweep the world.  

“As a candidate, Biden’s compassion and his understanding that Americans would not be safe unless the whole world was vaccinated was spotlighted when he pledged to ALS-diagnosed health activist Ady Barkin that he would ensure vaccines were shared worldwide to end the pandemic as quickly as possible and not allow IP barriers to thwart people’s right to access and today’s announcement is a critical step towards that goal. The fastest possible negotiations of a TRIPS waiver must also be accompanied by significant increases in funding and technology transfer to boost domestic and international vaccine production capacity so we can end this pandemic and prepare for the next.

“The optics of the U.S. and the few other wealthy countries with vaccines blocking 100 poorer countries without vaccines from even starting WTO negotiations on a temporary emergency waiver that is critical to boosting vaccine production was only made worse by China and Russia widely sharing their vaccines and technology worldwide. With an mRNA vaccine developed in China now in final trials, a Chinese firm already licensed to make the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines, and Latin American countries gearing up to make the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine, today’s announcement is a gamechanger.”

Subject: Maryknoll Statement on TRIPS waiver

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Kathleen Kollman Birch 
May 5, 2021(202) 832-1780, kathleen at maryknollogc.org <mailto:kathleen at maryknollogc.org>  
U.S. Support for IP Waiver Will Provide Tools to End the Pandemic 

WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, May 5, the Biden administration announced that it would support a waiver of intellectual property rules at the World Trade Organization in order to allow COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to be manufactured more widely.  

“We rejoice in today’s news that the Biden administration will now support an intellectual property waiver to speed up production for the tools we need to end the pandemic: vaccines, testing, and therapeutic medicine,” said Chloe Noel, Faith Economy Ecology Project Coordinator at the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns. “We express our gratitude to Ambassador Tai and look forward to her leadership as she works with her counterparts on the text of a waiver. We hope that other countries that have stood in the way of this proposal will follow Ambassador Tai’s lead and join in constructive dialogue to develop waiver text that advances the goals of the original proposal from India and South Africa.” 

“Too many lives have been lost already, and too many more will become sick or die without vaccine access, especially in low- and middle- income countries,” Noel continued. “A just recovery requires that everyone have equitable and timely access to vaccines, treatments, and testing necessary to contain the pandemic. Advancing global vaccine access is our moral responsibility as a global community at the service of the common good. Today’s decision will help further that goal.”  

The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns (MOGC) represents Maryknoll missioners, who are Catholic men and women serving in impoverished communities around the world. The MOGC provides analysis and advocacy on issues of justice, peace and the integrity of creation that affect the countries and communities where Maryknoll missioners serve.   
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Oxfam Reaction to Announced US Support of WTO Trips Waiver on COVID Vaccines
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/05/05/oxfam-reaction-announced-us-support-wto-trips-waiver-covid-vaccines <https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/05/05/oxfam-reaction-announced-us-support-wto-trips-waiver-covid-vaccines>

5/5/2021

WASHINGTON - In response to today’s announcement that the US Trade Representative is supporting waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, Abby Maxman, Oxfam America’s President and CEO, made the following statement:

"President Biden and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai have recognized that Pharma’s ‘business as usual’ is killing us. In this moment of crisis, we applaud their willingness to pursue a new path that prioritizes public health over private profits.

"Today, we celebrate the momentous decision by President Biden and his administration to engage with the rest of the world to pull down all barriers standing in the way of everyone everywhere getting access to COVID vaccines.

"This is a testament to the widespread public movement calling for an end to vaccine monopolies. It is also a testament to an administration that listens and is willing to do whatever it takes to defeat COVID-19.

"Over the past year, nurses, doctors, Nobel Laureates, former heads of state, artists, economists, public health activists and more than two million people from around the world have rallied together to call on President Biden to reassert the US’s moral and public leadership on the world stage.  Today President Biden answered that call.

"We are at a crucial inflexion point in the fight against the coronavirus, yet we have remained essentially at the mercy of a handful of giant pharmaceutical corporations that have monopoly control over the life-saving technologies we all need. This may now begin to change.

"Loosening the monopoly grip that pharmaceutical companies have on these life-saving vaccines is an essential step toward increased manufacturing that would lead to worldwide immunization, helping the US and everyone else. We will now look to the White House for leadership in a strong WTO outcome, in urgently insisting on the transfer of technologies through the World Health Organization Covid-19 Technology Access pool, and in investing strategically to build up regional vaccine hubs to defeat this and future pandemics.

"The horrific situation in India is a warning to all of us that if we don’t move urgently to share the vaccine technology and scale up manufacturing so everyone, everywhere can have access to these lifesaving vaccines, we will never get the upper hand on COVID anywhere.”

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Health GAP Statement in Response to USTR Announcement that the U.S. Will Support Waiving Intellectual Property Protections for COVID-19 Vaccines

Contact:
Jessica Bassett (Health GAP): 1 518-593-7628| jessica at healthgap.org <mailto:jessica at healthgap.org>
Health GAP Executive Director Asia Russell said:  “As HIV activists, we know that activism and global solidarity can change the trajectory of a pandemic. Today’s announcement <https://twitter.com/AmbassadorTai/status/1390021205974003720?s=20> shows that the Biden administration is feeling the pressure built over many months of relentless activism by people around the world organizing together to end vaccine apartheid and fight for a people’s vaccine to end COVID-19. 

“This is a necessary first step from the Biden administration, but text based negotiations must not drag on indefinitely, should not be limited to vaccines only, and must be transparent, with text accessible by all. 

“Already, 2.2 million people have died of COVID-19 since the waiver was proposed in October 2020. The Biden administration must not cave to big pharma scare tactics and its army of lobbyists that will undoubtedly kick into high gear to stall further progress. 

“Biden must double down on this recognition that circumstances call for extraordinary measures by quickly bringing pharma to the table to compel them to share technology and by using all resources at his disposal to fund increased manufacturing capacity in the Global South.”

###

CEPR Experts Applaud US Decision to Support Waiver on IP Protections for COVID-19 Vaccines, Propose Next Steps to Ensure Global Vaccine Access and an End to the Pandemic <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717832/284121088/1661038872?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 5, 2021
CONTACT:
Dan Beeton, 202-239-1460, beeton at cepr.net <mailto:beeton at cepr.net>
or Karen Conner, 202-281-4159, conner at cepr.net <mailto:conner at cepr.net>
Washington DC — The Biden administration’s announcement <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717833/284121089/1097628946?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031> today that it will support a waiver on intellectual property protections at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to facilitate access to COVID vaccines around the world is welcome news, and could result in millions of lives being saved, Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) experts said today. This action, with the necessary follow-through, will save thousands and potentially millions of lives by reducing the spread of vaccine resistant strains (which could, without containment, lead to a whole new round of infections and lockdowns in the United States). 

CEPR Senior Economist Dean Baker has written extensively about patents, IP protections, and COVID vaccines, including in op-eds for The New York Times  <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717834/284121090/672770228?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031>and The Nation <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717835/284121091/604745932?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031>. He said: “On the production part, we need full transparency on the process and inputs needed to manufacture all the vaccines so as to ramp up production as quickly as possible,” and noted: “We also need these manufacturers to share their production technology, much of which is now held as industrial secrets. The government can offer to pay Moderna and Pfizer to share this information by both publishing it and doing hands-on consulting with manufacturers elsewhere, to allow them to get up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Deborah James, CEPR’s Director of International Programs, and coordinator of the Our World Is Not For Sale Network (which fights harmful agreements and proposals at the WTO), celebrated the announcement, but cautioned <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717836/284121092/-1169295459?s=20&nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031>: “Now let's make sure US support includes waiving IP on equipment and inputs needed for vaccines; and waiving IP on diagnostics and medicines; as well as on copyrights on N95 masks, ventilators, etc., for resolving the heinous pandemic of COVID-19.”

The announcement today follows a global campaign for a “People’s Vaccine” and increasing pressure for the US to support a TRIPS waiver, something the US had originally declined to do. 

Baker has proposed a global vaccine summit  <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717837/284121093/-1021580260?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031>to foster international cooperation and “to take inventory of the world’s supply of effective vaccines (including those from China and Russia), and the potential for increasing production of each of them.” 

Baker has long been a critic of patents and copyrights, pointing to other incentives and means of funding the development of vaccines, medicines, medical equipment, and other necessities. He recently wrote <https://click.everyaction.com/k/28717838/284121094/592742259?nvep=ew0KICAiVGVuYW50VXJpIjogIm5ncHZhbjovL3Zhbi9FQS9FQTAwMy8xLzc1Mzc2IiwNCiAgIkRpc3RyaWJ1dGlvblVuaXF1ZUlkIjogIjM3YWQxYzNmLWVlYWQtZWIxMS04NWFhLTAwNTBmMjM3YWJlZiIsDQogICJFbWFpbEFkZHJlc3MiOiAib3JmdGNAY2l0aXplbnN0cmFkZS5vcmciDQp9&hmac=As8N4DmEvFtX15-Y2hT-sunFDnUDx6rmq5uwdR-jKLI=&emci=db65ae17-edad-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&emdi=37ad1c3f-eead-eb11-85aa-0050f237abef&ceid=4611031>: 

To my view, there is no economic policy that is worse in its outcomes than our system of patent monopoly financing for prescription drugs. Yet, the question of alternatives almost never comes up in policy discussions. 

With the pandemic costing millions of lives around the world and costing our economies trillions in lost output, we really should be asking whether the current system serves us well in producing vaccines, tests, and treatments. 

# # #

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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