PM urged to support IP waiver for COVID vaccines

A group of more than 400 academics, public health experts, civil society organisations, parliamentarians, unions, healthcare workers and patients have signed a letter to prime minister Boris Johnson urging his support for waiving intellectual property rules on COVID-19 health technologies, in order to secure more equitable access to them.

The move came just days after the Biden-Harris Administration voiced support for the move, in the hope of ramping up access in low-income countries hit by the virus, marking a u-turn on the US’ initial opposition to the move.

In the letter to the UK’s PM, organised by Global Justice Now, STOPAIDS and Just Treatment, the signatories urge Johnson to ‘stand on the right side of history’, and re-consider the UK government’s opposition to the proposal ‘that is supported by over 100 countries worldwide and is crucial towards ending this global pandemic and achieving worldwide immunity’.

‘Action is profoundly urgent’, it stressed, as ‘new waves of COVID-19 are rising across the globe while epidemiologists warn that new mutations risk leaving current vaccines ineffective’.

The waiver, it argues, ‘would allow more producers to get more vaccines made, and help save countless lives and livelihoods,” and “defending intellectual property at all costs will not only lead to even more unnecessary loss of lives but is an unprecedented act of collective self-harm’.

According to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontierès (MSF), the move “could provide countries with new options to address the limitations of existing WTO rules and remove legal uncertainties and barriers that may impede production and supply of COVID-19 medical products in advance”.

Highlighting the need for action on access, MSF noted that many of the low-income countries in which it operates have received just 0.3% of global COVID-19 vaccine supply “while the US has secured enough doses to protect its entire population and still have more than half a billion surplus vaccines left over”.

Shortages of diagnostics and live-saving treatments and other life-saving medical tools are putting more pressure on countries such as India and Brazil, “where the surging of cases has pushed health systems to the brink of collapse,” the group warns.

“The longer it takes to vaccinate everyone in the world, the greater the risk to us all as new variants have more opportunity to take hold,” noted Avril Benoît, executive director of MSF-USA. “Countries that continue to oppose the WTO waiver, such as European Union countries, the UK, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Norway, Japan and Brazil must now take action too, and decide to put people’s health before pharmaceutical profits and waive IP on all COVID-19 medical tools, including vaccines.”

However, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) expressed disappointment with the US administration’s decision to support a patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines.

“We are fully aligned with the goal to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are quickly and equitably shared around the world. But, as we have consistently stated, a waiver is the simple but the wrong answer to what is a complex problem.

“Waiving patents of COVID-19 vaccines will not increase production nor provide practical solutions needed to battle this global health crisis. On the contrary, it is likely to lead to disruption, while distracting from addressing the real challenges in scaling up production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally, namely: elimination of trade barriers, addressing bottlenecks in supply chains and scarcity of raw materials and ingredients in the supply chain, and a willingness by rich countries to start sharing doses with poor countries.

“The only way to ensure quick scaling-up of and equitable vaccine access to all those in need remains pragmatic and constructive dialogue with the private sector.”

Also commenting on the issue, Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said that simply waiving IP is not the solution. “In the short term, it will hinder vaccine scale-up and in the long term, significantly impact global investment into new vaccines and medicines, including for future pandemics.”