IP Rights Debate Heats Up As COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts Push Forward
The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines offers a glimmer of hope after a tumultuous year in 2020. The pandemic has seen almost 2.1 million deaths globally, making countries eager to vaccinate their citizenry.[1] However, such efforts have presented their own set of issues. Namely, there is currently an insufficient supply to vaccinate everyone.[2] This further raises issues of inequality, with wealthy countries obtaining the resources more readily.[3]
Many argue that suspending intellectual property (IP) rights for COVID-19 vaccines is necessary to provide widespread access.[4] The argument is that products that prevent or treat COVID-19 constitute “global public goods.”[5] This approach is not new. For example, when the HIV/AIDS pandemic swept sub-Saharan African at the turn of the century, courses of non-generic drugs, produced and patented by foreign drug companies, were priced at about $10,000 per year.[6] This was obviously unattainable for many poorer countries.[7] South Africa’s government subsequently spent years attacking the monopolies that pharmaceutical corporations had over their patented drugs.[8]
Recently, South Africa and India have proposed that the World Trade Organization suspend some of the IP protections for COVID-19 drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic technologies.[9] Citing “exceptional circumstances,” the proposal would “exempt member countries from enforcing some patents, trade secrets, or pharmaceutical monopolies under the organization’s agreement on trade-related intellectual property rights, known as TRIPs,” thus allowing companies to produce generic versions of vaccines and treatments.[10] Some countries have supported a compulsory licensing approach, which would halt the patent holder’s monopoly over their product.[11]
However, the proposal has since been consistently opposed by the United States, as well as by the European Union, Britain, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Brazil.[12] Proponents of upholding IP protection argue that such rights are necessary for “facilitating incentives for innovation and competition.”[13]
Some, including organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, argue that nonenforcement of patents during the pandemic is alone inadequate in ensuring global vaccine access.[14] This is because, according to Doctors Without Borders, things like trade secrets and know-how are key elements of vaccine development and manufacturing; so long as they are protected, they “will limit the availability of vaccines all around the world.”[15] Accordingly, multiple major pharmaceutical companies, such as AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, have entered into “technology transfer partnerships” and other similar agreements with local companies in low and middle-income countries to develop up to one billion doses of their respective vaccines.[16]
While the U.S. government has not yet decided to curtail domestic IP protection for COVID-19 drugs and vaccines, we can now only rely on the pledges made by various pharmaceutical companies. Still, how this will affect vaccination efforts on a global scale remains to be seen and will likely continue to be a matter of fierce debate.
Footnotes
