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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Hi Arthur:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Please find a letter sent today to USTR and Capitol Hill requesting a waiver to Intellectual Property laws re: COVID Vaccines.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D">Laura<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> CTCField [mailto:ctcfield-bounces@lists.citizenstrade.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Arthur Stamoulis<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, December 7, 2020 12:09 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> CTC Field Field <ctcfield@lists.citizenstrade.org><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [CTC] Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/opinion/covid-vaccines-patents.html"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#0563C1">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/07/opinion/covid-vaccines-patents.html</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:24.0pt">Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights</span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="css-w6ymp8" id="article-summary"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Otherwise, there won’t be enough shots to go around, even in rich countries.</span></i><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">By <span class="css-1baulvz">Achal Prabhala</span>, <span class="css-1baulvz">Arjun Jayadev</span> and <span class="css-1baulvz">Dean Baker</span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Dec. 7, 2020, <span class="css-epvm6">5:01 a.m. ET </span><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="css-158dogj">As some reports would have it, this is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/12/03/britain-pfizer-vaccine-nationalism/?utm_campaign=wp_todays_worldview&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F2d3fc8b%252" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">the
beginning of the end</span></a>. <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/modernas-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-meets-its-primary-efficacy" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Three</span></a> <a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">coronavirus</span></a> <a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/content/astraz/media-centre/press-releases/2020/azd1222hlr.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">vaccines</span></a> have
posted excellent results, with more expected to come.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">But this is not the beginning of the end; it is only the beginning of an endless wait: There aren’t enough vaccines to go around in the richest countries on earth, let alone the poorest ones.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">That’s why it makes little sense that the United States, Britain and the European Union, among others, are blocking a proposal at the World Trade Organization that would allow them, and the rest of the world, to get more of the vaccines
and treatments we all need.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">The <a href="https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/IP/C/W669.pdf&Open=True" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">proposal</span></a>, put forward by India and South Africa in October, calls on the W.T.O.
to exempt member countries from enforcing some patents, trade secrets or pharmaceutical monopolies under the organization’s agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, known as <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_e.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">TRIPs</span></a>.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">It cites the “exceptional circumstances” created by the pandemic and argues that intellectual property protections are currently “hindering or potentially hindering timely provisioning of affordable medical products”; the waiver would
allow W.T.O. member countries to change their laws so that companies there could produce generic versions of any coronavirus vaccines and Covid-19 treatments.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">The idea was <a href="https://insidetrade.com/daily-news/us-eu-oppose-wto-effort-waive-ip-protections-amid-pandemic" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">immediately opposed</span></a> by the United States, the European Union,
Britain, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Australia and Brazil. It was opposed again at <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/11/20/rich-countries-block-covid-19-drugs-rights-waiver-at-wto" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">another meeting</span></a> in
November, and <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/wto-members-may-seek-more-time-to-decide-on-trips-waiver-to-fight-covid-19/article33250222.ece" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">again last week</span></a>.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">By our count, nearly 100 countries favor the proposal, and yet because <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org1_e.htm" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">almost all decisions at the W.T.O. are made by
consensus</span></a>, a small number of countries can thwart the will of the majority, even a super majority. (The organization has 164 members.)<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">The U.S. trade representative <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/developing-nations-push-for-covid-vaccines-without-the-patents-11605614409" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">is reported to have said</span></a> that protecting
intellectual property rights and otherwise “facilitating incentives for innovation and competition” was the best way to ensure the “swift delivery” of any vaccines and treatments. The European Union <a href="https://www.keionline.org/34275" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">has
argued</span></a> that there was “no indication that intellectual property rights issues have been a genuine barrier in relation to Covid-19-related medicines and technologies.” The British mission to the W.T.O. agrees, characterizing the waiver proposal as
“<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-statement-to-the-trips-council-item-15" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">an extreme measure to address an unproven problem</span></a>.”<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">In fact, the novel technology at the heart of the Moderna vaccine, for example, was <a href="https://khn.org/news/vaccine-pioneers-basic-research-scientists-laid-groundwork-for-billion-dollar-pharma-products/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">developed</span></a> partly
by the National Institutes of Health using U.S. federal funds. Moderna then received a total of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/politics/coronavirus-vaccine.html"><span style="color:#0563C1">some $2.5 billion in taxpayer money</span></a> for
research support and as preorders for vaccines; <a href="https://www.axios.com/moderna-barda-coronavirus-funding-disclosure-2775a517-a775-485a-a509-b6906c8535a9.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a156de0d-5e0e-477d-acb3-ad8efea8551d&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a363f8a5-20b1-4609-bca0-72579f573204" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">by
the company’s own admission</span></a>, the $1 billion contribution it received for research covered 100 percent of those costs.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">Moderna has <a href="https://investors.modernatx.com/node/10066/pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">pledged</span></a> not to enforce its “Covid-19 related patents against those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic.”
But as Doctors Without Borders <a href="https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/news-stories/news/msf-modernas-decision-not-enforce-covid-19-vaccine-patents-during" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">has pointed out</span></a>, that offer
is less generous than it seems since other types of intellectual property, such as know-how or trade secrets, typically are needed to develop and produce vaccines.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">Pfizer, <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-eu-pfizer/eu-seals-deal-with-pfizer-biontech-for-supply-of-300-million-doses-of-covid-vaccine-idINKBN27R1F5" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">for its part</span></a>,
received a $455 million grant from the German government to develop its vaccine, and then, by our count, nearly $6 billion in purchase commitments from the United States and the European Union.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">AstraZeneca benefited from some public funding while it was developing its vaccine, and received a total of more than $2 billion <a href="https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/astrazeneca-scores-1b-from-u-s-signs-up-to-deliver-hundreds-millions-covid-19-vaccines" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">from
the United States</span></a>and the <a href="https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/az-nets-396m-downpayment-for-300m-plus-eu-vaccine-doses" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">European Union</span></a> for both research and in purchase commitments.
It also signed <a href="https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/astrazeneca-unveils-massive-750m-deal-effort-to-produce-billions-covid-19-shots" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">a deal worth $750 million</span></a> to supply the Coalition for
Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance with a total of <a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/astrazeneca-takes-next-steps-towards-broad-and-equitable-access-to-oxford-universitys-covid-19-vaccine.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">300
million doses</span></a>.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">In other words, the vaccines developed by these companies were developed thanks wholly or partly to taxpayer money. Those vaccines essentially belong to the people — and yet the people are about to pay for them again, and with little
prospect of getting as many as they need fast enough.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">We calculate, based on Pfizer’s and Moderna’s stated vaccine-production capacity and their supply deals with the United States and the European Union,<a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-supply-japan-120-million-doses-their" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">as
well as</span></a> <a href="https://www.europeanpharmaceuticalreview.com/news/132173/takeda-to-supply-japan-with-modernas-covid-19-vaccine/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Japan</span></a> and <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/moderna-chairman-says-canada-near-head-of-line-for-20-million-vaccine-doses" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Canada</span></a>,
that these countries can expect, at best, to have about 50 percent of their populations covered by the end of 2021. Considering that <a href="https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/nov/11/most-pfizers-vaccine-already-promised-richest-campaigners-warn" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">82
percent of the vaccines</span></a> Pfizer says it can produce through next year and <a href="https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/nov/16/78-moderna-vaccine-doses-already-sold-rich-countries" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">78 percent of Moderna’s</span></a> have
already been sold to rich countries, according to the advocacy group Global Justice Now, imagine the likely shortages and delays for the rest of the world. (Canada is said to have placed so many preorders that it could end up with <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7467507/canada-coronavirus-vaccines/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">10
doses per capita</span></a>.)<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">AstraZeneca, to its credit, has struck deals with manufacturers in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-india-vaccine/serum-institute-to-focus-on-supplying-covid-19-vaccine-to-india-first-idINL4N2I92LA" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">India</span></a> and <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-latam-vaccine/astrazeneca-set-to-start-making-400-million-covid-19-vaccines-for-latam-early-in-2021-idINKCN2591Y1" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Latin</span></a> <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-vaccine/brazil-signs-agreement-to-produce-astrazenecas-experimental-covid-19-vaccine-idINKBN23Y0NB" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">America</span></a>, <a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/astrazeneca-takes-next-steps-towards-broad-and-equitable-access-to-oxford-universitys-covid-19-vaccine.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">as
well as with Gavi</span></a>, to help <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03370-6?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=64d644f9c0-briefing-wk-20201204&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-64d644f9c0-42896183" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">poor
countries get access to its vaccine</span></a>. (It has also <a href="https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/azd1222hlr.html" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">committed not to make a profit</span></a> from its vaccine during
the pandemic — though, according to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c474f9e1-8807-4e57-9c79-6f4af145b686" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">a Financial Times report based on company documents</span></a>, AstraZeneca has retained the right to
declare the end of the pandemic as early as July 2021.) That said, the company estimates that it will be able to make three billion doses by the end of 2021; that’s enough for only 20 percent of the world’s population.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">Poor countries have faced such problems before. The W.T.O.’s creation in 1995 coincided with <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp048156" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">a surge of H.I.V./AIDS in sub-Saharan
Africa</span></a>. By 1996,<a href="https://academic.oup.com/jac/article/54/1/10/746768" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">new treatments</span></a> were developed that made AIDS a mostly manageable condition — though only for people who could afford
them. Nongeneric drugs <a href="https://msfaccess.org/sites/default/files/HIV_report_Untangling-the-web-18thed_ENG_2016.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">cost about $10,000 a year</span></a> at the turn of the century, and were well out of the
reach of many people in, say, <a href="https://msfaccess.org/worldwide-revolt-access" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">South Africa</span></a>. It <a href="https://www.voanews.com/archive/s-africa-begins-giving-free-aids-drugs-patients-2004-04-01" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">took
the South African government almost a decade</span></a> to break the monopolies held by foreign drug companies that kept the country hostage, and kept people there dying.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">In Brazil, Gilead Sciences, the monopoly owner of sofosbuvir, a breakthrough treatment for hepatitis C, has been in <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/05/07/coronavirus-vaccine-drug-company-monopolies-brazil/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">a
deadlock with the government</span></a> over expanding and cheapening access to the drug for Brazilians. By <a href="https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2019/10/25/gilead-brazil-hepatitis-antitrust-drug-prices/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">several</span></a> <a href="https://reporterbrasil.org.br/2020/06/why-brazil-pays-up-to-1400-brl-for-a-medicine-that-costs-34-brl/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">accounts</span></a>,
when Gilead Sciences obtained patents for sofosbuvir in early 2019, it hiked the price for Brazilian public agencies from $16 to<a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/scienceandhealth/2019/10/cost-of-hepatitis-c-drug-price-skyrockets-1422-after-patent-approval.shtml" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1"> $240
a capsule</span></a>. Yet that would drop to about $8 if the drug were produced locally under <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2893582/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">a compulsory licensing scheme</span></a> that the TRIPs
agreement already allows in some circumstances.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">Countries in which drugs are relatively cheap, such as India, face another kind of challenge: attempts to overturn the laws that make those drugs accessible there. Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, fought a decade-long battle <a href="https://www.ip-watch.org/2013/04/04/the-judgment-in-novartis-v-india-what-the-supreme-court-of-india-said/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">to
secure monopoly control</span></a> in India over its treatment for leukemia, and in the process tried to have <a href="https://www.escr-net.org/caselaw/2020/novartis-ag-v-union-india-2007" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">a key provision of Indian
patent law struck down</span></a> as unconstitutional. (It failed on both fronts.)<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">What’s more, the crisis of access to affordable medicines also affects countries whose governments defend extensive intellectual property protections for companies: <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2019/09/10/insulin-public-option-pharmaceutical-industry/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Insulin</span></a>,
for example, can be punishingly expensive in the United States.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/health/covid-remdesivir-gilead.html"><span style="color:#0563C1">Remdesivir</span></a>, a drug used to treat Covid-19 (with<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/opinion/remdesivir-covid-fda.html"><span style="color:#0563C1"> mixed
results</span></a>), is now in short supply <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/opinion/remdesivir-shortage-coronavirus.html"><span style="color:#0563C1">in the United States</span></a> and <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-europe-drugs/european-countries-face-shortages-of-covid-19-drug-remdesivir-idINKBN26R2L8" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">Europe</span></a>.
Gilead Sciences, remdesivir’s manufacturer, has retained its monopoly over the drug in rich countries, but in May it signed <a href="https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2020/05/12/gilead-generics-remdesivir-covid19-coronavirus-licenses/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">licensing
agreements with companies in 127 countries</span></a> so that they could produce generic versions for sale there. The result? While there have been shortages of the drug in the West, it has been available in increasingly stable supplies in several poor countries,
sometimes at <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/d1d69573-c3f8-4e6b-b147-2f29e9721c0d" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">one-tenth of the price</span></a>.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">But the governments of rich countries can push back against Big Pharma, too, and sometimes have done so — despite the pharmaceutical industry’s sometimes colossal financial clout. (Campaign and lobbying contributions from drug makers
to the U.S. federal government totaled some $4.7 billion between 1999 and 2018, according to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7054854/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">one recent study</span></a>.) In the aftermath of 9/11,
the United States feared an anthrax attack and needed unusually large supplies of ciprofloxacin from Bayer; when the government <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/25/business/nation-challenged-cost-bayer-agrees-charge-government-lower-price-for-anthrax.html?searchResultPosition=2"><span style="color:#0563C1">threatened
to bypass the company’s patent</span></a> and buy generic alternatives, the company <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1003966074330899280#:~:text=Bayer%2C%20a%20German%20pharmaceutical%20maker,at%2095%20cents%20a%20pill.&text=The%20deal%20guarantees%20the%20government,than%20supplies%20can%20treat%20now" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">lowered
the price of the antibiotic and increased supplies</span></a>.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">In Britain last year, families of children with cystic fibrosis petitioned the government to suspend a company’s monopoly over Orkambi, the first significant treatment for the disease. After political parties threw their weight behind
the petition, Vertex, the maker of Orkambi, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/12/tories-orkambi-drug-pricing-nhs" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">agreed to sell the drug at a much lower price</span></a> than it had been
holding out for.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">As for coronavirus vaccines and Covid-19 treatments, another meeting of the TRIPs Council is scheduled for Dec. 10; on Dec. 16 and 17 the W.T.O.’s general council, one of the organization’s highest decision-making bodies, will meet. The
United States, the European Union and Britain are expected to dig their heels in.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">Yet mounting pressure from poor countries at the W.T.O. should give the governments of rich countries leverage to negotiate with their pharmaceutical companies for cheaper drugs and vaccines worldwide. Leaning on those companies is the
right thing to do in the face of a global pandemic; it is also the best way for the governments of rich countries to take care of their own populations, which in some cases experience more severe drug shortages than do people in far less affluent places.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-158dogj">Last month, the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal denounced the TRIPs waiver proposal put forward by India and South Africa as a “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-global-covid-vaccine-heist-11605829343" target="_blank"><span style="color:#0563C1">patent
heist</span></a>,” adding that “their effort would harm everyone, including the poor.” In fact, the effort would help everyone, including the rich — if only the rich could see that.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="css-pncxxs">Achal Prabhala is the coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines, and a fellow of the Shuttleworth Foundation, in Bangalore. Arjun Jayadev is a professor of economics at Azim Premji University, in Bangalore,
and a senior economist at the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Dean Baker is a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Mr. Prabhala is a public health activist. Mr. Jayadev and Mr. Baker are economists.</i><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt">Arthur Stamoulis<br>
Citizens Trade Campaign<br>
(202) 494-8826<br>
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