The Current Assault on Biopharm Patents: From Biden to Geneva

LES Webinar: The Current Assault on Biopharm Patents: From Biden to Geneva

In September of 2021, India and South Africa proposed to suspend global intellectual property rights under the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Right (TRIPS) Agreement in relation to products or processes to treat, prevent, or diagnose Covid-19.

The offered justifications include: (1) waiving global IP could mobilize additional available vaccine manufacturing capacity around the world; (2) existing internationally-agreed procedures for compulsory licensing of IP under the TRIPS Agreement are too slow, cumbersome, and inefficient in the current pandemic; (3) Covid vaccine and therapeutic technology was created with the help of public funding and should be freely available in the public domain; (4) existing manufacturing capacity is controlled by a few profit-driven corporations that cannot be trusted to work in the public interest and are selling their vaccine output to the highest-bidding rich countries.

The governments of Germany, the UK, Singapore, Switzerland, the EU, Chile, Brazil and others have opposed the proposal on the grounds that it lacks justification, is infeasible, and counterproductive, amongst other reasons. Despite the global distribution of over 7 billion doses of 18 different vaccines as of October 2021 and despite expected global manufacturing of over 12 billion doses by the end of 2021, frustration with the unequal pace of global vaccine rollout has created increasing support for the TRIPS IP Waiver among WTO members, including an endorsement by the Biden administration.

This program will explore the scope of the proposed Waiver, the status of discussions in the WTO and domestically in the US, and the implications of waiving global IP rights for current and future pandemic preparedness, US competitiveness, and global trade.

LES Members Price: FREE

(LES International Members please contact info@les.org for a code)

Non-Members: $69