<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-covid-19-vaccine-patents-waiver-letter-biden_n_6090ec8fe4b05af50dc72e98?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004" class="">https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democrats-covid-19-vaccine-patents-waiver-letter-biden_n_6090ec8fe4b05af50dc72e98?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004</a></div><div class=""><header class="entry__header yr-entry-header" data-yaft-module="huffpost-entry-header"><div class="js-headline headline">
<h1 class="headline__title">Majority Of House Democrats Want Joe Biden To Waive COVID-19 Vaccine Patents</h1>
<div class="headline__subtitle">Biden “has an incredible opportunity” to reverse Trump administration damage, 110 House Democrats told him in a letter.</div>
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<div class="author-card__name"><span aria-hidden="true" class="">By </span><span aria-hidden="true" class=""><a class="author-card__link yr-author-name" aria-label="By Daniel Marans" href="https://www.huffpost.com/author/daniel-marans">Daniel Marans</a></span></div></div></div></div></div></header><div class="entry__text js-entry-text yr-entry-text" data-yaft-module="huffpost-entry-text"><div class="advertisement entry_paragraph_3 treated" data-placement="entry_paragraph_3" data-yaft-module="huffpost-entry_paragraph_3">
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<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">A majority of House <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/democratic-party" class="">Democrats</a> <a href="https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2021/05/04/6090ec89e4b05af50dc72e8d.pdf" class="">signed a letter</a> to President <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/joe-biden" class="">Joe Biden</a> on Tuesday calling for the White House to temporarily waive patents and other intellectual property protections preventing developing countries from mass-producing COVID-19 vaccines.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">The letter, drafted by Rep. <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/topic/jan-schakowsky" class="">Jan Schakowsky</a> (D-Ill.) with the support of 109 colleagues, pitches Biden on the opportunity to save lives as well as improve the United States’ global image, battered during the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/news/topic/donald-trump" class="">Donald Trump</a> administration. </p></div></div><p class="">Biden has thus far declined to lift the United States’ opposition to the World Trade Organization, or WTO, even considering a temporary waiver of the protections for drugmakers.</p></div><div class="js-teads-entry-placement teads-entry-placement">
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</div><div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">“Your Administration has an incredible opportunity to reverse the damage done by the Trump Administration to our nation’s global reputation and restore America’s public health leadership on the world stage,” the <a href="https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2021/05/04/6090ec89e4b05af50dc72e8d.pdf" class="">letter</a> states. “To bring the pandemic to its quickest end and save the lives of Americans and people around the world, we ask that you reverse the Trump position and announce U.S. support for the WTO [Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property] waiver.”</p></div><div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">The letter’s signatories span the ideological spectrum and include a number of moderate Democrats in swing seats, including Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.</p></div><div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">There are some puzzling absences as well. Of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which has <a href="https://progressives.house.gov/caucus-members/" class="">93 members</a>, 22 did not sign the letter.</p></div><div class="pg-placeholder" id="public-good-placeholder"><div class="pgs-dpg-btn" data-pgs-partner-id="verizon-huffpost" data-loaded="true" widget-loading="true"></div></div><div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property, or <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vaccine-patents-equity_n_608deafce4b0b9042d9308f9" class="">TRIPS agreement</a>, requires WTO member nations to respect patents and other intellectual property rules that effectively grant United States and European pharmaceutical companies monopolies on drugmaking.</p></div><p class="">The world’s wealthiest nations and the <a href="https://patentdocs.typepad.com/files/2021-03-05-phrma-letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="">drugmakers</a> based in those countries insist that temporarily waiving, or deactivating, global intellectual-property regimes will not instantaneously hand developing countries the technological know-how and raw materials for vaccine production.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">But these developing countries, led by <a href="https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/IP/C/W669.pdf&Open=True" class="">India and South Africa</a>, maintain that even if the waiver is not sufficient on its own for an adequate global vaccine supply, it is at least a necessary prerequisite.</p></div><figure class="image content-list-component yr-content-list-image"><div class="js-image-meta-wrapper image__meta-wrapper">
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<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">As it stands, the voluntary arrangements that the United States and its allies have erected to solicit vaccine donations and technology transfers have proven <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-55795297" class="">vastly inadequate</a> at supplying lower-income nations with vaccines. India, in particular, is struggling to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/world/asia/india-coronavirus-deaths.html" class="">dispose of dead bodies</a> as the pandemic reaches lethal new heights.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">In addition, with COVID-19 continually mutating, waiver proponents emphasize that the United States has a vested interest in producing and administering as many vaccine doses as possible, as quickly as possible.</p></div><div id="inline-newsletter_placeholder" class=""><div class="inline-newsletter inline-newsletter--politics inline-newsletter--inlineWideBackgroundImage yr-newsletter-box inline-newsletter--one-line"><div class="inline-newsletter__inner"><div class="inline-newsletter__content"><div class="inline-newsletter__signup"><form class="newsletter-signup__form"><div class="newsletter-signup__email">
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</div></div><div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">“Biden is getting quite good marks ― even from a lot of Republicans ― about how he’s taken on COVID,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. “All of that positivity and the health gains could be lost, if they’re not paying attention and a vaccine-resistant variant ends up brewing someplace else, inevitably spreading worldwide and we all end up on lockdown again.” </p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">Schakowsky’s letter is the latest in a series of efforts by congressional Democrats, <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/hundreds-of-prominent-us-civil-society-organizations-call-on-pres-biden-to-stop-blocking-covid-19-wto-waiver-to-boost-vaccines-treatments-worldwide/" class="">progressive groups</a> and <a href="https://peoplesvaccinealliance.medium.com/open-letter-former-heads-of-state-and-nobel-laureates-call-on-president-biden-to-waive-e0589edd5704" class="">global humanitarians</a> to nudge Biden closer to supporting a waiver.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">In the Senate, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also<a href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/SenateTRIPSletter4.15.21.pdf" class=""> sent a letter</a> to Biden endorsing the patent waiver, attracting the support of nine other members of the Senate Democratic Caucus. The pivotal centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) has<a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/04/28/covid-vaccine-generic-joe-manchin/" class=""> expressed openness</a> to the idea.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">On Thursday, the terminally-ill progressive activist Ady Barkan <a href="https://twitter.com/AdyBarkan/status/1387919031844417536" class="">released a video</a> calling on Biden to stay true to a promise.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">In Barkan’s video, he plays an excerpt from a pre-election, on-camera interview with Biden in which Biden affirmed to Barkan his support for waiving COVID-19 vaccine patents that prevent mass production of the vaccine.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">“Absolutely, positively,” Biden replied when asked to commit to the waiver. “This is the only humane thing in the world to do.”</p><div class=""><div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">Biden has promised to make vaccines universally available, but declined to commit to the temporary patent waiver. “I think we’ll be in a position to be able to share vaccines as well as know-how with other countries who are in real need,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/zainrizvi/status/1387124458809344007" class="">said</a> in late April.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class=""><a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pharma-democrats-covid-19-vaccine-waiver-schakowsky-letter_n_60909efbe4b02e74d22aba89?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="">Plenty of Democrats</a> are wary of lifting the intellectual property rules. Many of them are among Congress’ <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/pacrecips.php?ind=h04&cycle=2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="">top-25 recipients</a> of campaign contributions from pharmaceutical industry political action committees. </p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">Two such Democrats ― Reps. Scott Peters (Calif.) and Ron Kind (Wis.) ― have <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pharma-backed-democrats-letter-biden-patent-waiver_n_6089cfcde4b0462027031b92" class="">solicited support</a> for a big business-backed letter expressing opposition to the patent waiver.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a Biden confidant and the 16th-largest recipient of pharmaceutical industry PAC donations last election cycle, has been outspoken in defense of the patents.</p></div>
<div class="yr-content-list-text content-list-component text"><p class="">“A central part of being successful in this competition is continuing with our constitutionally created protected property right of a patent,” Coons said in an <a href="https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/event/210421_Hamre_Intellectual_Property.pdf?v8lOwgZy0RMKDoDfR87Ae9NvmiZUj9n6" class="">April speech</a>.</p><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></div></div></div><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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