<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://inthesetimes.com/article/pfizer-moderna-vaccine-apartheid-trips-waiver-wto-intellectual-property-patents" class="">https://inthesetimes.com/article/pfizer-moderna-vaccine-apartheid-trips-waiver-wto-intellectual-property-patents</a> </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><h1 class="font-lyon text-4xl md:text-5xl leading-tighter lg:text-55xl pb-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-size: 3.25rem; margin: 0px; font-weight: inherit; word-break: keep-all; font-family: "Lyon Display Web"; line-height: 1.1; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;">Big Pharma’s Big Lie About Vaccine Patents</h1><h3 class="font-normal text-xl py-3 font-serif md:text-1xl leading-tightish lg:text-2xl auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; font-size: 1.5rem; font-weight: 400; word-break: keep-all; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; line-height: 1.35; padding-top: 0.75rem; padding-bottom: 0.75rem;">Companies say that sharing vaccine recipes wouldn’t boost manufacturing soon enough, but now we know that’s not true.</h3><h4 class="text-sm py-2 font-bold uppercase font-sans md:text-base auto" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; font-size: 1rem; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; padding-top: 0.5rem; padding-bottom: 0.5rem; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="https://inthesetimes.com/authors/sarah-lazare" class="text-red" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgba(229,40,35,var(--text-opacity)); text-decoration: inherit; --text-opacity: 1;">SARAH LAZARE</a> AND <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/authors/paige-oamek" class="text-red" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgba(229,40,35,var(--text-opacity)); text-decoration: inherit; --text-opacity: 1;">PAIGE OAMEK</a> <span class="font-sans pl-8 auto font-normal" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-weight: 400; padding-left: 2rem;"><time datetime="Nov 3, 2021, 3:00:00 PM" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;" class="">NOVEMBER 3, 2021</time></span></h4><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">Big Pharma has been caught in a lie that implicates not only major Covid-<span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">19</span>vaccine manufacturers, but also heads of state and members of Congress. Tracking how the lie spread, and who spouted it, reveals a great deal about how a for-profit industry, loyal only to its shareholders, is shaping international discourse about humanity’s capacity to save lives during the pandemic.<br style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;" class=""></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">The lie relates to an October <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">2020</span> proposal from India and South Africa that the World Trade Organization suspend enforcement of key patent rules so that cheaper, generic versions of Covid-<span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">19</span> treatments and vaccines can get to more people more quickly. (The proposal is referred to as a TRIPS waiver, a reference to the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.) The pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna, concerned with maximizing their present and future profits, emerged as virulent opponents of such a measure, which still has not passed more than a year later, even as just <a href="https://data.undp.org/vaccine-equity/accessibility/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">one out of <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">21</span></a> people in poor countries have been fully vaccinated. It is no anomaly that the industry would reject such a proposal — pharmaceutical companies had a <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/pfizer-covid-vaccine-world-trade-oganization-intellectual-property-patent-access-medicines" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">big hand</a> in shaping those WTO intellectual property rules in the first place, to protect pharmaceutical monopolies and their profits.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">But in order to protect strict intellectual property rules while also protecting its public image, the pharmaceutical industry had to weave a narrative that portrays companies as driven by altruistic motives: the desire to protect innovation and research, and ensure safe and responsible vaccine production. Among talking points about how intellectual property incentivizes creativity, and rewards those who save lives, a key argument has emerged: <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;" class="">Sharing vaccine recipes is not the panacea you think it is, because much of the world — i.e. the Global South — lacks the facilities and capacity to produce vaccines in a safe and timely manner. Even if we got rid of all intellectual property rules tomorrow, this would do little to boost immediate global vaccine supply.</em></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">Pfizer and Moderna, both of which produce mRNA vaccines, have been purveyors of this narrative, warning of the laborious and time-intensive process of developing the ability to produce mRNA vaccines specifically. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>There is no idle mRNA manufacturing capacity in the world. This is a new technology, you cannot go hire people who know how to make mRNA — those people don’t exist,” Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/22/science/developing-country-covid-vaccines.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">said</a> in May. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>Only a few facilities in the world perform some of the critical steps needed to manufacture mRNA vaccines,” industry trade group PhRMA, which represents Pfizer and Johnson <span class="amp" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">&</span> Johnson, <a href="https://patentdocs.typepad.com/files/2021-03-05-phrma-letter.pdf" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">asserted</a> in March.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">It’s clever messaging, because it has an air of expert knowledge, casting companies as patiently informing activists who are well-intentioned but don’t understand how vaccine production works. It also plays to pre-existing racist assumptions that the Global South does not have pharmaceutical sectors capable of producing quality goods, but must rely on its more sophisticated former colonizers.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">But, it turns out, empirical claims can be empirically disproven. On October <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">22</span>, the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;" class="">New York Times</em> ran a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/22/science/developing-country-covid-vaccines.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">story</a> titled, <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>Here’s Why Developing Countries Can Make mRNA Covid Vaccines” that identifies <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">10</span> different facilities in India, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Argentina and Indonesia that are strong candidates for producing mRNA vaccines. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>The key criteria include existing facilities, human capital, the regulatory system for medicines and the political and economic climate,” writes journalist Stephanie Nolen. Some of the facilities are already producing other vaccines, or testing or making their own mRNA vaccines. In other words, Global South countries could absolutely start producing Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, if the companies would only tell them how. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">Of course, this fact is no great revelation to the countries that house these sectors. After all, it was India and South Africa, with giant pharmaceutical industries, that first brought forward the WTO proposal last fall, which has since garnered support from more than <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">100</span> countries. Back in May, well before the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;" class="">New York Times</em> article was published, Indonesia’s health minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, <a href="https://healthpolicy-watch.news/indonesia-and-bangladesh-reveal-massive-untapped-vaccine-production-capacity-at-c-tap-anniversary/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">said</a> at a World Health Organization event that the country has the capacity to <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>upscale our vaccine productions to meet regional and global demand.” </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">But for those with whom the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;" class="">New York Times</em> carries more weight than health ministers in the Global South, the paper’s investigation should have been a stunning revelation. A key talking point against the free sharing of vaccine recipes was premised on a false assertion. This has significant implications for a world where vaccine inequality is playing out on a staggering scale. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>Africa has fully vaccinated <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">77</span> million people, just <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">6</span>% of its population. In comparison, over <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">70</span>% of high-income countries have already vaccinated more than <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">40</span>% of their people,” the World Health Organization <a href="https://www.afro.who.int/news/less-10-african-countries-hit-key-covid-19-vaccination-goal" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">warned</a>ahead of the recent G<span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">20</span> summit. What if this horrific reality is an indicator that our system of vaccine distribution, in which private companies wield monopoly power over vaccine distribution, is fundamentally unjust, and leading to millions of preventable deaths? What if it’s a sign that we have to do exactly what the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t want us to: share vaccine patents, which were enabled by public research and funds in the first place, so that more people can make them? </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">We don’t have definitive proof that pharmaceutical executives sat in a room somewhere and said, <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>Let’s deceive the public about the world’s vaccine manufacturing capacity.” But there have been enough activists, scientists, and heads of state pointing out holes in Big Pharma’s narrative to make it highly likely that the industry, at the very least, was aware of challenges to the veracity of its claims. And it was in its interest to ignore them. Remarkably, the industry has shown it would rather build its own facilities from scratch — like the BioNTech <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/biontech-says-aims-start-building-mrna-vaccine-factory-africa-mid-22-2021-10-26/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">facilities</a> in Rwanda and Senegal, which won’t even start construction until mid-<span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">2022</span> — than give Global South countries the ability to produce vaccines themselves. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">Big Pharma has not been alone in spinning the narrative that the system of private pharmaceutical monopolies is working just fine. While the Biden administration proclaimed in May that it would reverse the Trump administration’s policy of blocking a patent waiver at the WTO, it has been vague about exactly what kind of patent waiver it does support, and it has so far <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/world-trade-organization-trips-waiver-council-proposal-patents-vaccines" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">declined</a> to throw its weight behind the proposal from India and South Africa. Meanwhile, opponents of the TRIPS waiver in Congress are repeating disproven talking points about lack of manufacturing capacity.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">Among them are Democrats, including Sen. Chris Coons (D‑Del.), who is <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/23/chris-coons-biden-senate-334270" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">known</a> for his close relationship with President Biden. In April, Coons was the keynote speaker at an <a href="https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/event/210421_Hamre_Intellectual_Property.pdf?v8lOwgZy0RMKDoDfR87Ae9NvmiZUj9n6" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">event</a> for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank that receives <a href="https://www.csis.org/corporation-and-trade-association-donors" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">funding</a> from the pharmaceutical industry. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>I don’t think that waiving [intellectual property] rights will suddenly enable other countries the ability to ramp up the manufacturing of complex vaccines,” said Coons, who has raked in <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/09/chris-coons-big-pharma-joe-biden" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">considerable donations</a> from the pharmaceutical industry, and represents a state that is heavy in this sector. Similarly, Democratic Reps. Scott Peters (Calif.) and Ron Kind (Wis.), who both were among the top <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">25</span> recipients of Big Pharma PAC money in the <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">2020</span>election cycle, wrote an <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pharma-backed-democrats-letter-biden-patent-waiver_n_6089cfcde4b0462027031b92" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">open letter</a> to Biden in May, just before his WTO announcement, proclaiming that a patent waiver <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>risks the successes seen to date and provides little to no opportunity for further expansion of vaccines.”</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">Of course, this false talking point has also been echoed broadly on the Republican side. In just one example, Sen. Mike Crapo (R‑Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has been <a href="https://www.accountable.us/news/new-report-sen-crapo-raked-in-money-from-health-care-and-financial-special-interests-while-poised-to-chair-key-committee/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">criticized</a> for significant donations from the pharmaceutical industry. In May, responding to the Biden administration’s reversal of Trump’s policy at the WTO, Crapo proclaimed, <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>Today’s announcement that the Administration supports waiving the WTO TRIPS Agreement will not accelerate vaccinations. That is because waiving the intellectual property rights of America’s innovators — which was supported by U.S. taxpayers — will not result in any new manufacturing capabilities in time to respond to the pandemic.” </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">At bare minimum, these members of Congress should be questioned for trafficking in a false assertion. They should have the names of all of the facilities in the Global South capable of producing mRNA vaccines read to them, and be forced to account for the gulf between their claims and reality.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">But such accountability would have to extend much further than Washington. While all <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">164</span> members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) must reach a consensus before action is taken, rich and powerful countries like the United States and Germany wield disproportionate power at this body, where negotiations and debates often take place behind closed doors. The countries opposing the TRIPS waiver include the United Kingdom, Norway and Switzerland, along with the European Union. The outgoing German leader Angela Merkel, de facto leader of the EU, has in recent months played the biggest role of all world leaders in obstructing the proposal. She has also espoused false pharmaceutical industry talking points. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>The limiting factor for the production of vaccines are manufacturing capacities and high quality standards, not the patents,” Merkel <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-06/merkel-pushes-back-on-vaccine-patent-waiver-in-clash-with-biden" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">said</a> on May <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">6</span>, the day after Biden said he would no longer block a patent waiver.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">On May <span class="numbers" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; font-feature-settings: "onum";">8</span>, three days after Biden made his announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron played down the importance of a patent waiver. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>The priority today is not intellectual property — it’s not true. We would be lying to ourselves,” he <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-pushes-back-on-biden-plan-to-waive-patents-as-contest-escalates-in-global-vaccine-diplomacy/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">said</a>. <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>It’s production.” In June, Macron would go on to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/macron-backs-waiving-covid-19-vaccine-patents-ahead-of-g7-summit/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: inherit; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -1px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -2px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 3px 1px 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -3px 1px 0px; box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px -2px 0px 0px inset;" class="">declare</a>that he backs a TRIPS waiver. But when it comes to vaccine distribution, every day, week, and month of delay means more lives lost.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 1.5rem; font-family: "Lyon Text Web"; font-size: 22px;" class="">It is difficult to imagine a more important issue to get right than the answer to the question of how to get vaccines into as many arms as quickly as possible. Yet, those entrusted with an inordinate amount of power to determine how such distribution happens have been caught trafficking in false assertions about the Global South’s manufacturing ability. That this lie has traveled so far, among so many powerful people, should be an international scandal of the top order, and all those who have trafficked in such a line should — at minimum — have to answer for how they got it so wrong. And it should also sow doubt about Big Pharma’s many other assertions: that innovation can’t happen without intellectual property protections, that <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>piracy” and <span class="push-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;"></span><span class="pull-double" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid;">“</span>theft” of vaccine research from Russia and China constitute a great threat, and that private companies — accountable only to their shareholders — are the best stewards of such a vital, life-saving supply.</div></div><br class=""><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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