<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=""><div class=""><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Congressional Letter Here:</span></div><div class=""><font color="#121212" face="Georgia, serif" size="4" class=""><a href="https://blumenauer.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/blumenauer.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2022-10-04 Post-WTO TRIPS Letter to President Biden.pdf" class="">https://blumenauer.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/blumenauer.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2022-10-04%20Post-WTO%20TRIPS%20Letter%20to%20President%20Biden.pdf</a></font></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">======</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/05/us-covid-recovery-global-vaccine-testing-wto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class="">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/05/us-covid-recovery-global-vaccine-testing-wto</a></div><div class=""><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">US Covid recovery in ‘jeopardy’ unless poorer countries helped, group warns</span><span style="font-size: 24pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class=""><u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15pt; background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Congressional group writes letter urging Biden to extend WTO agreement aimed at easing generic vaccine exports<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: baseline;"><i class=""><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(199, 0, 0);" class=""><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/dominic-rushe" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-family: inherit, serif; color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; font-style: normal;" class="">Dominic Rushe</span></b></a><u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: baseline;"><b class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(112, 112, 112);" class=""><a href="https://www.twitter.com/dominicru" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(112, 112, 112); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">@dominicru</span></a><u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Wed 5 Oct 2022 13.08 EDT <u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">US recovery from the Covid pandemic is in “jeopardy” unless the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Biden administration</span></a> supports making treatment and testing for the disease more readily available to low-income countries, a powerful congressional group has warned Joe Biden.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">In a letter to Joe Biden led by congressman <a href="https://blumenauer.house.gov/media-center/press-releases" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Earl Blumenauer</span></a>, chairman of the subcommittee on trade, the group urged the president to extend a June World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement aimed at easing exports of generic vaccines to treatments and therapeutics.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">The letter comes ahead of what is expected to be a contentious meeting of the WTO council for trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights that starts on Thursday, where the proposals will be discussed.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class=""><u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">As more contagious variants of the disease emerge it is “critically important” that the US backs the agreement to ease access to therapeutics and treatments for poorer nations, the group writes.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">The proposals are being championed by South Africa and India but face stiff opposition from the pharmaceutical industry and Switzerland and the UK.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">In June the WTO <a href="https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/WT/MIN22/W15R1.pdf&Open=True" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">reached a limited agreement</span></a> to facilitate exports of generic Covid vaccines made under compulsory licenses – a license issued by a government to a third party to produce a patented medicine when the patent owner has refused a voluntary license. The WTO proposed extending the agreement to treatment and testing within six months.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Critics of the original deal argued it was too little, too late and said a broad waiver for intellectual property rights on Covid vaccines and treatments was needed to stem the deadly pandemic, which has now infected more than 619 million people worldwide and caused more than 6.5 million deaths, according to <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">John Hopkins</span></a>.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Max Lawson, co-chair of the People’s Vaccine Alliance and head of inequality policy at Oxfam, called it “<a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/responding-news-governments-world-trade-organization-wto-have-agreed-deal-patents-covid-19-vaccines-developing-countries" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">a technocratic fudge</span></a> aimed at saving reputations, not lives”.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">But some were hopeful that the US would support an extension to treatments and testing, seen as a high priority as the coronavirus continues to ravage countries where vaccination rates are still low. <a href="https://www.covid19globaltracker.org/pillar/vaccination" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Just 19% of people</span></a> in low-income countries are vaccinated compared with 75% in high-income countries, according to the <a href="https://www.covid19taskforce.com/en/programs/task-force-on-covid-19-vaccines/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class=""><span style="color: rgb(199, 0, 0); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;" class="">Multilateral Leaders Taskforce on Covid-19</span></a>.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; color: rgb(112, 112, 112);" class=""><u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">“It is critically important that the United States announce support for the extension and join with our allies South Africa and India to forcefully advocate to extend the decision to diagnostics and therapeutics,” the congressional group told Biden.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">“Emerging Covid-19 variants are more contagious than ever and are mutating quickly. Extending the decision to therapeutics and thus making them more available will reduce rates of serious illness, hospitalization, and death, which is especially important in low-income countries where only a small percentage of the population has been vaccinated. Likewise, more widely available diagnostics will slow the spread of new variants by alerting individuals and public health officials of outbreaks so countermeasures can be employed, and treatments can be provided within the key window.”<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Industry groups have opposed any relaxation of intellectual property (IP) rights on therapeutics and testing, arguing it will disincentivize the industry and weaken IP protections overall.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">The US Chamber of Commerce has been highly critical of the WTO’s original decision, calling it “a solution in search of a problem” and arguing that intellectual property rights “helped deliver Covid-19 vaccines in record time, and today the world is awash in vaccine doses”.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">In a letter to the Biden administration, the US Chamber of Commerce said it also had “serious concerns” regarding any extension of the agreement, arguing it would further undermine intellectual property (IP) rights around the world.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">“The proposal for an expanded waiver now under consideration by WTO members further threatens US leadership in biotechnology and other key sectors, including digital, green, and agricultural technology, by reinforcing a precedent for the ready expropriation of IP,” it wrote.<u class=""></u><u class=""></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt; font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(18, 18, 18);" class="">Lori Wallach, director of Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project, said: “Big pharma killed the waiver of intellectual property monopolies in the first instance and are now greedily seeking to stop the modest WTO agreement to help export generic treatment and test made in compliance with WTO rules in a way that could devastate people’s lives while increasing big pharma’s profits.”</span></p></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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