German Chancellor Angela Merkel doesn’t support waiving patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, according to Bloomberg, which could be enough to defeat the plan supported by President Joe Biden and more than 100 lower-income countries to allow all drug manufacturers to have access to vaccine formulas.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a news conference after discussions with the heads of … [+]
FILIP SINGER-POOL/GETTY IMAGES
KEY FACTS
The German government is concerned granting waivers would cause “severe complications” in vaccine production, largely echoing the views of opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.
On Wednesday, the Biden Administration announced support for the waivers, which proponents say would speed up international distribution since there won’t be just a select few companies producing the shots.
Countries like India and South Africa are among those asking the World Trade Organization to grant the waivers, and winning Biden’s support was seen as clearing a major hurdle to having the plan approved.
But having Merkel’s support is just as crucial, since Germany is also a member of the WTO, and approval of the plan requires a unanimous vote of WTO members.
Most of the poorer countries of the WTO’s 164 members are strongly in support, but it hasn’t yet won the approval of several European Union member states.
Poorer countries are lagging far behind the likes of the U.S. in vaccinations, with most countries on the African continent still with well under 1% of populations fully vaccinated.
TANGENT
Being one of the handful of companies able to produce the vaccine can bring massive profits. Pfizer, for instance, brought in $3.5 billion in vaccine revenue during the first quarter of this year—leading to about $900 million in pretax vaccine profits, according to The New York Times. And though they haven’t developed a vaccine, Germany is home to some major pharmaceutical companies, like Bayer and Merck.
CHIEF CRITICS
The idea of waivers has some major pushback. The major pharmaceutical lobbyist group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, claim the patent waivers will do more harm than good, warning they would cause further confusion in the international rollout process and lessen the incentive to quickly manufacture drugs in the future. There is also concern over how much it would cost to produce generics, since there are few existing factories capable of producing mRNA vaccines such as those made by Pfizer and Moderna, with the price tag possibly running in the billions of dollars. Even public health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci have poured cold water on the idea waivers would significantly impact vaccine supplies in the developing world. Fauci said this week granting waivers might not be “the fastest and most efficient way” to aid vaccine distribution, and could lead to legal battles among drugmakers.
SURPRISING FACT
Moderna voluntarily waived the intellectual property claims for its vaccine throughout the duration of the pandemic, but no other companies have decided to manufacture its vaccine. Still, that wasn’t enough to keep stocks like Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca from falling after the Biden Administration’s announcement.
KEY BACKGROUND
In the U.S., progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are leading the push for waivers. Last week, Warren and five other Democratic senators sent letters to the CEOs of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson requesting information on how the companies plan to share information so generic shots can be developed. The companies were given a May 11 deadline to provide the information.
Forbes
