First duty is protect your own citizens<\/h2>\n
During its first 100 days, the Biden administration was laser focused on vaccinating Americans. Critics complained about how unequal the global vaccine rollout was (and is), but Biden understood that whether you\u2019re an autocrat or a democratically-elected leader, your first duty is to protect your own citizens.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, with over 40% of American adults fully vaccinated\u00a0and vaccines effectively available to all Americans who want it, the Biden team has rightly turned some of its focus\u00a0to global needs and, frankly, vaccine diplomacy.\u00a0With the United States\u00a0now committed to a temporary WTO waiver of intellectual property rights \u201cfor COVID-19 vaccines,\u201d the trick will be to negotiate what is included in the waiver and benchmarks for when the pandemic is sufficiently under control that such a waiver ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That will be no easy task, especially since the WTO works by consensus.\u00a0It took years to agree to a modification of WTO rules for HIV and malaria medicines; it took four years of negotiations in a sister Geneva organization to get an agreement on providing copyrighted books to the blind.\u00a0In short, the administration may be thinking that its own well-executed vaccine diplomacy \u2013 think billions of doses being shipped out from the U.S., Europe, and India \u2013 will halt the pandemic before the ink can dry on any temporary changes in WTO rules.<\/p>\n
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President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in virtual meeting with leaders of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue countries on March 12, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n But let\u2019s assume that agreement on the details of a waiver could be reached quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n Will a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights in relation to COVID-19 vaccines make any practical difference in getting billions of doses produced, distributed, and administered?\u00a0Perhaps, but there are reasons to be doubtful.\u00a0<\/p>\n Practically everyone agrees that the issue in production of these drugs \u2013 whether conventional vaccines or the new mRNA vaccines \u2013 is not the patented technology, but (a) proper manufacturing facilities, (b) raw materials, (c) production know-how, and (d) logistical hurdles in administering the shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prioritize the disabled: <\/strong>High-risk teens like my son should be at the top of the COVID vaccine list this month<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n First, the mRNA vaccines \u2013 the Moderna and Pfizer\/BioNTech shots \u2013 require different manufacturing facilities.\u00a0At a March 8\u00a0World Health Organization event, Dr. \u00d6zlem T\u00fcreci, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech, put it bluntly: \u201cit is about novel platforms and novel technologies for which even the setup of production facilities need to be expanded, and you cannot just repurpose existing facilities. So patents are one thing, but there are so many other things we have to ensure.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, there are conflicting claims about whether and how quickly existing pharmaceutical plants can be refitted to make these vaccines\u00a0\u2013 with a scattering of companies claiming they could do it.\u00a0But no one really knows if repurposing existing facilities could produce more vaccines than ramping up production in the U.S., Europe, and India. On this one, I\u2019m going to believe Dr. T\u00fcreci.<\/p>\n Similarly, supplies of the raw materials for vaccine production are limited \u2013 and that has little to do with the relevant intellectual property.\u00a0At that same WHO event in March, Sarah Gilbert, developer of the Oxford\/AstraZeneca vaccine, said:\u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think that just making IP freely available goes anywhere close to solving this problem, because it\u2019s not just to the right to use the technology that\u2019s needed, it\u2019s the feedstocks, the cell banks, the protocols, the assays, the standards, the reagents to do everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Those are non-intellectual property hurdles to get the vaccines produced. Next, there are the hurdles to get it distributed and administered.\u00a0The cold storage needed for the mRNA vaccines and the double dosage requirements for all but the Johnson & Johnson vaccine make for epic logistical challenges in developing countries.\u00a0Even in the United States \u2013 where 97% of adults have cellphones \u2013\u00a0we are having significant problems getting people to show up for their second dose. And you might be surprised to know that the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine is not yet approved for use in India. It wouldn\u2019t matter if there were 100 million doses sitting in storage in a Mumbai warehouse: It cannot yet be legally administered.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three misconceptions:\u00a0<\/strong>I was wrong about the COVID-19 vaccines. Here\u2019s what I learned.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n So, if the WTO waiver isn\u2019t likely to directly trigger more vaccine production and distribution, what is all this about?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n First, it\u2019s easy to imagine that Biden has calculated that this policy shift will be a huge political positive for the United States.\u00a0It shows our commitment to the cause without\u00a0 significant damage to America\u2019s pharmaceutical industry.\u00a0Between this and an activist aid program to help India pull through the COVID storm, we can prove to India that we are now intent on the kind of close relationship the world\u2019s two largest democracies should have always had.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the message to the pharmaceutical industry \u2013 and the message everyone sees Biden telling them \u2014\u00a0is to put profits aside and focus on human well-being.\u00a0While the WTO waiver may take months to negotiate, even the idea of the waiver will push pharmaceutical companies to work even harder and more collaboratively with governments to get the world\u2019s 7.7 billion people vaccinated.<\/p>\n This wasn\u2019t a decision about intellectual property or about the logistics of vaccination. It was a decision about America\u2019s global leadership.<\/p>\nProduction and distribution hurdles<\/h2>\n