Caught in tangled web of vaccine nationalism
By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia,
Feb 2 2021 (IPS) – “Oh what a
tangled web we weave When first
we practice to deceive”. Walter
Scott’s lines, already over two
centuries old, nicely sum up how
pursuit of national advantage
and private gain have undermined
the public interest and
the common good.
As known COVID-19 infections
exceed 100 million internationally,
with more than two
million lives lost, rich countries
are now quarrelling publicly
over access to limited vaccine
supplies. With ‘vaccine nationalism’
widespread, multilateral
arrangements have not been
able to address current challenges
well.
Vaccine nationalism has
meant that the rich and powerful
come first, not only in societies,
but also in the world, making
a mockery of the ‘No one left
behind’ slogan embraced by the
international community.
Many developing countries
and most of their people will
have to wait for access to vaccines
while the powerful and
better off secure prior access
regardless of need or urgency.
Vaccine nationalism and the
prospect of more profits by not
scaling up output to induce scarcity
may thus cause more losses
of both lives and livelihoods,
causing economies to slow further.
TRIPS waiver blocked
The 1994 World Trade Organization
(WTO) agreement on
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS)
greatly strengthened and extended
intellectual property rights
(IPRs) transnationally. It is easy
to forget that strict cross-border
An employee shows the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Northwell
Health’s Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in New York, U.S., Dec. 21, 2020. REUTERS/
Eduardo Munoz/File
enforcement of IPRs claims are
relatively recent.
While many assume that IPRs
are needed to promote research
and development for technological
progress, this is seriously
challenged by most serious histories
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
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and historians of technology.
Perhaps more importantly,
there is considerable evidence
that IPRs may well have inadvertently
slowed progress. More
generally, IPRs have discouraged
research cooperation and
knowledge sharing, so essential
to progress.
By enabling, and thus encouraging
‘patent trolling’ and hoarding,
IPRs have effectively denied
access to patented products and
processes except to the highest
bidders.
Public health exception
Following the pushback to
the original TRIPS, boosted by
Nelson Mandela after he became
South African President in
1994, developing countries have
secured legal access to ‘essential
medicines’.
A 2001 WTO Declaration
on TRIPS and Public Health
affirmed the right of countries
to protect public health, enable
access to medicines, and issue
a compulsory license (CL), even
without a health emergency.
In return for developing countries
extending IP protection,
developed countries promised to
establish manufacturing capabilities
for patented processes in
developing countries, and incentivise
their transnational corporations
(TNCs) to enable technology
transfer to developing
countries, especially the least
developed countries (LDCs).
In 2017, the TRIPS Agreement
was amended to confirm
developing countries unable to
domestically produce certain
pharmaceuticals, could issue
compulsory licenses to import
patented drugs produced abroad
under compulsory licensing.
But although TRIPS now
allows such use of compulsory
licensing, developing countries
are still constrained by its complex
rules, procedures and conditions
as well as constant TNC
threats and inducements, supported
by their governments.
Hence, use of compulsory
licensing by developing countries
has been largely limited to
several more independent middle
income countries, such as
India, Thailand, Indonesia and
Malaysia, and to HIV/AIDS medicines.
TRIPS waiver
The TRIPS waiver – proposed
by South Africa, India and others
to the WTO – seeks temporary
suspension of several TRIPS
provisions on patents, design
and protection of undisclosed
information.
The proposed waiver seeks to
greatly scale up production of
and access to COVID-19 vaccines,
medicines and equipment, especially
in developing countries,
to contain the contagion. But
the Trump administration, the
European Union (EU) and their
allies have stubbornly blocked
the waiver.
The EU claims “an intellectual
property system is…also to
ensure the publication and dissemination
of research results,
when otherwise they will remain
secret.” It omits to acknowledge
that no vaccine developer has
shared research results needed
to scale up vaccine output by
others, including generic producers.
Vaccine nationalism
rules
Although the waiver implies
treating vaccine production and
distribution as public goods, and
the European Commission (EC)
President Ursula von der Leyen
has spoken about “working
together” and “solidarity” for the
“public good”, the EU continues
to block it.
But after AstraZeneca and
Pfizer failed to meet their contractual
obligations to deliver
vaccines to EU countries, the
now embattled EC President has
criticised the companies for not
meeting their contractual obligations.
She did not hesitate to
emphasise that EU taxpayers
and governments had paid much
to accelerate vaccine development
and production.
Ironically, the most feasible
way forward now involves
approving the TRIPS waiver at
the WTO. The US and EU governments
can make the badly
needed breakthrough and thus
do much to restore international
confidence in their intentions.
With Biden announcing the
US re-joining the World Health
Organization (WHO), the new
administration can not only lift
the embargo on exports of vaccines,
vital medicines and equipment,
but also advocate for the
TRIPS waiver, quickly winning
appreciation for his commitment
to multilateral leadership.
US taxpayers have already
spent many billions for Trump’s
Operation Warp Speed to accelerate
private vaccine development
and distribution. Now,
both the US and EU are well
placed to greatly accelerate vaccine
production and distribution
for the world at relatively little
additional cost.
They can do so by ensuring
that relevant information is
quickly shared to rapidly scale up
vaccine production. For example,
mass vaccine production capacity
remains limited internationally,
but it is the Serum Institute
of India, not a developed country
facility, which is acknowledged
as the world leader by far.
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