COVID-19 vaccine patent waiver: What's next amid US-Germany rift over approval?

The United States, in a bold bid, decided to support waive patents on much-needed COVID-19 vaccines joining the stance of over 120 countries. However, the move was quickly opposed by Germany on May 6 that could still potentially derail the proposal at the World Trade Organisation, which requires the consensus of all members to pass. Even pharmaceutical companies have expressed their disagreement with growing support for coronavirus vaccine patent waiver, proponents also view the move as essential for the wider distribution of the jabs across the globe.

As per the Bloomberg report, the drug companies have a powerful ally in Germany along with other nations such as Switzerland, UK. When US President Joe Biden announced America’s support to the waiver, shares of US and European Union’s (EU’s) vaccine makers toppled on Wednesday. At the core of US vs Germany is an arcane 1995 World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property (IP) rights also known as TRIPS. 

What exactly US agrees to support?

Fearing correctly that COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing would be dominated by wealthy nations, India and South Africa in October 2020 proposed that the rules of WTO’s TRIPS agreement should be eased. However, WTO decisions are based on consensus and hence, all 164 nations have to agree. Marking a reversal in its previous position on the discussion, the Biden administration has announced support for waiving patents on COVID-19 vaccines, however, not on treatments or other technology used to fight the disease.

As per reports, ten meetings in seven months have been unsuccessful in producing a breakthrough with 60 proposal sponsors by emerging economies backed by renowned scholars. If WTO adopts the waiver, it would allow pharmaceutical companies to developed COVID-19 vaccines without any fear that they might be sued by another entity that already holds the patent on the product.

The India-South Africa proposal of October 2020 says that the property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyright and protection of undisclosed information delays the timely access to affordable vaccines and medicines that are essential to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The nations have also demanded the waiver to be practised for an unspecified time period allowing yearly review until its termination.

Who opposes waiver and why?

Reportedly, huge drug and pharmaceutical companies oppose the proposed patent waiver including nations such as Britain, Switzerland, Germany among others. As per the Bloomberg report, spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel on May 6 said that the leader weighed in against America’s support of the waiver saying that it would create “severe complications” for the production of vaccines. 

"The limiting factor for the production of vaccines are manufacturing capacities and high-quality standards, not the patents," the German government spokeswoman said. "The protection of the intellectual property is a source of innovation and this has to remain so in the future."

While the US has marked a reversal on its stance, the critics of the waiver reportedly argue that vaccine development is unpredictable and costly. Therefore, according to big players in the industry such as Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, IP protection has helped them to provide the incentive for the development of jabs in record time and the same will happen as the firms continue to tackle the new emerging variants of the coronavirus. However, proponents have also said that some of the money that drugs company are saying was utilised in vaccine production, was public funds.

What’s next?

There have been varying views from nations across the EU and reportedly WTO spokesperson Keith Rockwell has said that there are likely to be more negotiations considering the situation. "It's such an important issue that there needs to be some form of movement," he told reporters. "Let's see if the EU comes forward with some other kind of idea. We'll have to wait and see how that goes."

Even though US support of waiver is a milestone achievement, it necessarily does not imply more jabs. For one thing, the WTO has to actually adopt the waiver. As per a Guardian report, vaccine production especially amid the pandemic has emerged as complex formulations. Even experienced nations have flagged problems in scaling up the production. The manufacturing process is equally important as the patented “recipe” of the jab and the WTO has no power to force firms such as Pfizer and Moderna to share the technology and knowledge that is used to produce the vaccines.

“It would not deliver more vaccines next week, but if they had done this a year ago, we would now have results,” reportedly said Ellen ‘t Hoen, a medical IP expert and campaigner regarding the changing stance of nations in support of the waiver of vaccine patents. She reportedly also said that sharing technology and expertise with manufacturers around the world would make production and distribution easier.

Meanwhile, at WTO, the talks are presently stalled after the 10th round of talks on April 30. The supporters of the waiver have said that they would revise their text from October 2020 for the next TRIPS council meeting in the second half of May. Later, more discussions will also take place in June.

Image credits: AP/PTI