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By Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason and David Lawder
WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on
Wednesday threw his support behind waiving intellectual property
rights for COVID-19 vaccines, bowing to mounting pressure from
Democratic lawmakers and more than 100 other countries, but
angering pharmaceutical companies.
Biden voiced his support for a temporary waiver - a sharp
reversal of the previous U.S. position - after a speech at the
White House, followed swiftly by an official statement from his
chief trade negotiator, Katherine Tai.
“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary
circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary
measures," Tai said in a statement, hours after telling an event
hosted by the Financial Times: "Time is of the essence."
Shares in a number of makers of vaccines for COVID-19
tumbled on the news. Two of the biggest vaccine makers are U.S.
companies - Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc.
Biden's move won praise from the head of the World Health
Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who called it a
"MONUMENTAL MOMENT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST #COVID19" on Twitter.
But the pharmaceutical industry's biggest lobby group warned
that Biden's unprecedented step would undermine the companies'
response to the pandemic and compromise safety.
Biden, who backed a waiver during the 2020 presidential
campaign, has made fighting the coronavirus a top priority of
his administration and the rollout of vaccines in the United
States has led to a decline in case numbers and deaths.
The Democratic president, who campaigned on a promise to
re-engage with the world after four years of contentious
relations between former President Donald Trump and U.S. allies,
has come under intensifying pressure to share U.S. vaccine
supply and technology to fight the virus around the globe.
His decision comes amid a devastating outbreak in India,
which accounted for 46% of the new COVID-19 cases recorded
worldwide last week, and signs that the outbreak is spreading to
Nepal, Sri Lanka and other neighbors.
NEGOTIATIONS TO TAKE TIME
Wednesday's statement paved the way for what could be months
of negotiations to hammer out a specific waiver plan. WTO
decisions require a consensus of all 164 members.
Tai said the United States would participate in text-based
negotiations at the WTO to ensure the waiver could happen, but
cautioned those deliberations would take time.
The United States and several other countries previously
blocked negotiations at the WTO about a waiver proposal led by
India and South Africa and aimed at helping developing countries
produce COVID-19 vaccines using the IP of pharmaceutical
companies.
Tai said: "The Administration believes strongly in
intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this
pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19
vaccines."
A person familiar with the U.S. consultations on the issue
said Wednesday's decision allows Washington to be responsive to
the demands of the left and developing countries, while using
WTO negotiations to narrow the scope of the waiver. Since the
negotiations will take time, the decision also buys time to
boost vaccine supplies through more conventional means.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center
for Health Security, said the patent waiver “amounts to the
expropriation of the property of the pharmaceutical companies
whose innovation and financial investments made the development
of COVID-19 vaccines possible in the first place.”
But proponents of the waiver say the pharmaceutical
companies will suffer only minor losses because the waiver would
be temporary - and they will still be able to sell follow-on
shots that could be required for years to come.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Jeff Mason, David Lawder, Steve
Holland, Michael Erman and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Peter
Cooney)
