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 "I think the end result that most players are looking for here is
not IP waiver in particular, it’s expanded global access to the
vaccines," said Professor Lisa Ouellette of Stanford Law School.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday supported a proposal to waive World
Trade Organization intellectual property (IP) rules, which would
allow poorer countries to produce vaccine for themselves. So far
COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed primarily to the wealthy
countries that developed them, while the pandemic sweeps through
poorer ones, like India.
The real goal, though, is expanded vaccine distribution.
"If it is possible to increase the rate of scaling up production,
this potentially would give the manufacturers a greater incentive to
come to an agreement to make that happen,” Ouellette said.
Vaccine makers like Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTEch have argued that
patents have not been a limiting factor in supply. New technology
and global limits on supplies are frequently cited as challenges,
and both Moderna and Pfizer nevertheless have steadily boosted
supply forecasts.
"There is no mRNA in manufacturing capacity in the world," Moderna
Chief Executive Stephane Bancel said on a conference call with
investors on Thursday, referring to the messenger RNA technology
behind both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine.
"This is a new technology. You cannot go hire people who know how to
make the mRNA. Those people don't exist. And then even if all those
things were available, whoever wants to do mRNA vaccines will have
to buy the machine, invent the manufacturing process, invent
verification processes and analytical processes."
To increase vaccine production capacity significantly within two
years, the Biden administration would need to do much more than
waive patents, including providing funding to find and build new
manufacturing sites, and backing technology and expertise transfer
to the new manufacturers, said drug supply chain expert Prashant
Yadav.
Moreover, the U.S. government must guard against allowing foreign
companies to use COVID-19 vaccine makers’ technology to compete in
areas outside of COVID-19, which are likely to be more lucrative in
the long term, said Thomas Kowalski, an attorney at Duane Morris who
specializes in intellectual property. Once a competitor has the
technology, restrictions on use are difficult to enforce, he said.
[to top of second column] |
 Professor Sarah Rajec of
William & Mary Law School said she did not think
a waiver itself would do as much as the signal
from the United States, a stronger supporter of
corporate intellectual property, that patent
rights take a backseat to the urgent needs of
the world population during the pandemic.
Rajec said Biden’s support for a waiver "pushes
the drug companies to be more open to
partnerships, and other licensing on favorable
terms, in a way that perhaps they otherwise
wouldn’t be."
Drugmakers argue that they have already struck
significant partnerships, sharing technology
with competitors who they might not have linked
up with if not for the pandemic.
“Our position is very clear: this decision will
further complicate our efforts to get vaccines
to people around the world, address emerging
variants and save lives," Brian Newell,
spokesman for pharmaceutical industry group
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America said in a statement.
European patent attorney Micaela Modiano said
that even if the waiver is adopted, vaccine
makers are likely to negotiate for some payment,
if less than what is generally paid in licensing
arrangements. Her firm Modiano & Parners
represents Pfizer but has not worked on any
COVID-19 related matters.
"I would imagine that the pharmaceutical
companies are already and will continue to lobby
significantly to make sure that if this waiver
proposal passes, that it just doesn't pass as
such, but that they receive some sort of
financial compensation," she said.
(Reporting by Michael Erman in Maplewood, N.J.
and Blake Brittain in Washington, D.C.;
additional reporting by Carl O'Donnell in New
York; editing by Caroline Humer, Peter Henderson
and David Gregorio)
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