Announcing May 5 that he would seek a patent waivers on U.S.-based Covid-19 vaccines, 78-year-old President Joe Biden showed he’s not in charge of administration or his right mind. When drug makers work tirelessly, investing untold billions in research and development, they expect to reap the rewards of life-saving medicines, especially vaccines the middle of the pandemic. As part of former President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed to produce Covid-19 vaccines in record time, the government paid Moderna, a Boston-biotech company, $2.5 billion in R&D money. Pfizer received no government cash other than the government buying 100 million initial doses, now totaling profits of $3.5 billion, about 25% of Pfizer’s annual income. Biden’s May 5 decision to give away the patents shows he’s controlled by his Party’s left wing with Sen. Elizabeth Warrant (D-Mass.) calling the shots.
Biden said Dec. 29, 2020 that “America is back” and he’s prepared to “lead the Free World,” something rejected by the European Union [EU], saying they’re perfectly capable to leading themselves. Biden’s decision to share the patents on Pfizer-BioNTech and Monderna’s Covid-19 vaccines met with stiff resistance in Brussels, wanting no part of sharing patents. Germany’s BioNTech partnered with Pfizer for the Covid-19 mRNA jab, using the latest technology to imitate the virus’s spike protein making Covid-19 so infectious. “The main issue for the solidarity is the distribution of doses,” said 43-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron, opposing sharing patents but open to wider distribution for the EU community. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposed the idea of giving away BioNTech’s patents. BioNTech’s partnership with Pfizer was a singular achievement for the German start-up company.
International patents and copyrights are an integral part of what British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab called the “rules-based system.” He accused China of violating the rules-based system regularly, disregarding patents-and-copyrights, prompting the Trump administration to end China’s theft of intellectual property. When it comes to vaccines, as long as purchasing and distribution channels are open to all, Pfizer and Modern deserve to reap the profits from their live-saving R&D. “In the short and medium term, the IP [International Patent] waiver will not solve the problems, it will not bring a single dose of vaccine in the short and medium term,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a summit in Porto, Portugal. In order for the vaccine to circulate, the ingredients and the vaccines themselves cannot be blocked. Today the Anglo-Saxons block many of these ingredients and vaccines,” said Macron.
Macron, like Biden, is confused about how to increase the distribution of the vaccines worldwide. Granting waivers from IPs only robs vaccine makers from investing the R&D into new products, since they expect to reap the lucrative profits from government purchasing. India and South Africa seek waivers of patent protection to manufacture vaccines in their own countries. Robbing biotech innovators from their patents-and-profits would discourage them from future public health efforts. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca-Oxford deserve whatever they get from vaccines. Waiving patents would discourage any future biotech innovation, since all multinational corporations are in it for the profit. EU officials don’t believe that Biden’s plan to waive patents would help availability of the Covid-19 vaccines. They see a waiver as reducing products for distribution.
Vaccine makers have no problem increasing production and distribution of vaccines as long as governments pay for the doses. Pfizer-BioNTech and Modern charge about $20 a dose for their mRNA Covid-19 vaccines. Astra-Zenenca-Oxford charge about the same, while Russia’s Sputik V vaccines sells for about $10 a dose. Drug makers care only about getting paid, regardless of the pricing. U.S. biotech Moderna waived the patent because the U.S. government gave them $2.5 billion in R&D cash, in exchange for massive government purchases. Pfizer-BioNTech has no plans to waive the patent on its Covid-19 vaccine. EU officials, especially Germany, opposes waiving the BioNTech patents for the joint project with Pfizer. With more variants on the horizon, biotech companies need all the incentives they can get to continue the R&D necessary to deal with more contagious and lethal variants.
Vaccine development deserves the same protections as any other drug patents. Governments don’t need vaccine patent waivers to produce the vaccines in their own countries. What they need is better vaccine distribution channels, something that can only occur if vaccine makers are guaranteed profits by holding onto patents. “No one will be safe until we all are. If vaccination takes place only in developed countries, our victory over Covid-19 will only be short-lived. We are seeing how quickly the virus is mutating, creating new variants that entail new challenges,” said a joint communiqué from leaders of Belgium, Sweden, France, Denmark and Spain in an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen. While there’s are differences in the EU how to achieve the quickest-and-widest distribution of vaccines, most agree it’s not an intellectual property issue but one of better access and distribution.
