We know by now what happens when COVID-19 surges and there’s no vaccine on hand.
To help poorer countries avoid that fate, the Biden Administration supports a waiver to TRIPS, the World Trade Organization’s 1995 Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
A full waiver would let any company that has the capabilities produce COVID-19 vaccines without fear of fines or sanctions for infringing on the intellectual property of, say, Pfizer or Moderna.
But it also would remove protections for industrial designs, copyright, proprietary mRNA platforms, data and more. That’s way too much for South Carolina’s life science community.
Ben Klosowski, a Greenville attorney with Thrive IP Intellectual Property Law Firm, put it to me this way: “Copyright? What does that have to do with medicine production and physical vaccines in a vat?”
And James Edwards of Elite Strategic Services, a strategic advisor for biopharma and medical device companies, says the resulting disruption could ripple over South Carolina biopharma companies. Investors would be skittish about backing R&D or commercialization of COVID-19 drugs, diagnostics or therapies.
Plus, these fellows and others say emergency compulsory licenses already written into TRIPS would do the trick just fine.
With around 10,000 people dying from COVID-19 every day, those options clearly aren’t fast enough. But industry support for the all-or-nothing waiver approach isn’t a practical reality, either.
That said, the world saw our “waste lists” when it turned out we had more vaccine than people would take. It’s reasonable for countries without enough to seek speedier solutions than COVAX pooling, lengthy compulsory license processes or waiting in line for one-on-one negotiations with vaccine makers.
With around 10,000 people dying from COVID-19 every day, those options clearly aren’t fast enough. But industry support for the all-or-nothing waiver approach isn’t a practical reality, either.
It feels like the innovation muscles public and private entities flexed to get us this far just went limp in the face of equitable health care delivery.
As I write this, WTO negotiations on the waiver are stymied. I’m hoping that by the time you read this, a viable new path will have emerged. Something that, like the vaccine itself, leaps off existing foundations with unprecedented speed to become the solution that works for damn near everyone.
This article originally appeared in Upstate Business Journal.