Letter to Joseph Biden, President of the United States - Senator Baldwin Urges Biden to Approve Vaccine Patent Waiver to Boost Production and End Pandemic

Letter

Dear President Biden:

We write regarding the urgent need for the United States to support the temporary waiver of
some Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules proposed by India and
South Africa at the World Trade Organization (WTO) during the COVID-19 emergency. We
urge you to support the adoption of this temporary waiver; doing so will help to ensure the most
effective and efficient response to this once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.

The TRIPS waiver proposed by India and South Africa in October 2020 would temporarily lift
certain intellectual property barriers and allow countries to locally manufacture COVID-19
diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. Allowing countries to manufacture locally will expedite
access to vaccines and treatment, prevent unnecessary deaths, expedite global vaccination
efforts, and facilitate a stronger, faster economic recovery. From a global public health
perspective, this waiver is vital to ensuring sufficient volume of and equitable access to COVID19 vaccines and therapeutics around the world, which is why the waiver is supported by more
than 100 nations. The TRIPS waiver is also essential to ensure all global economies, including
the United States' economy, can recover from the pandemic and thrive. Simply put, we must
make vaccines, testing, and treatments accessible everywhere if we are going to crush the virus
anywhere. Unfortunately, despite widespread support for its adoption, the Trump Administration
led opposition to the waiver and, with a handful of other WTO signatories, has blocked its
adoption.

As the World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said
last year, "this virus does not respect borders." Regardless of our vaccination efforts here in the
U.S., we cannot successfully combat COVID-19 without supporting the efforts of other countries
in our collective fight against this virus. Unless countries cooperate and share medical
technology, there simply will not be sufficient supply of vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments for
many countries -- particularly developing countries -- to effectively manage COVID-19.

Our globalized economy cannot recover if only parts of the world are vaccinated. While some
countries have the resources necessary to get shots in arms immediately, without large increases
in production, many countries may not have access to widespread COVID-19 vaccination until
as late as 2024.[i] We cannot afford to wait this long. Emerging COVID-19 variants show more
resistance to vaccines and are more infectious. They spotlight why time is of the essence: further
delay in developing immunity around the world will only lead to faster and stronger
mutations. Not only would this delay cause additional, unnecessary loss of life, but it would also
imperil the success of vaccination efforts currently underway -- potentially rendering existing
vaccines ineffective. Our vaccination efforts here at home will only be successful if vaccination
efforts in the developing world happen simultaneously. Supporting the TRIPS waiver will help
us all. While industry may argue that the TRIPS waiver is unnecessary, it is clear that the current
flexibilities included in TRIPS are ill-suited to an urgent, global crisis. TRIPS allows countries to
negotiate compulsory licenses, a flexibility that was reaffirmed in the Doha Declaration.
However, compulsory licenses must be negotiated by each WTO member country and for each
patent or other protection applying to each individual product. This country-by-country and
product-by-product approach is unworkable given the speed and global scope of access
necessary to combat a global pandemic. Relying on the existing, insufficient flexibilities also
subjects other countries to significant political pressures, making it harder for countries to pursue
this option.[ii]

Initiatives to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments by the WHO have also proven
woefully inadequate. The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative promises two
billion vaccine doses to developing countries by the end of 2021. Even if COVAX could obtain
these vaccines, that amount would cover doses for just 20 percent of the populations of all
participating countries. Moreover, the COVAX initiative does not include treatments. This is not
sufficient to end the pandemic worldwide. We will never be successful in battling a global
pandemic if we leave every country to fend for itself. This temporary, targeted TRIPS waiver is
essential to eliminating restrictions that currently prevent countries from manufacturing COVID19 treatments, vaccines, and testing supplies. It would allow countries and manufacturers to
directly access and share technologies to produce vaccines and therapeutics without causing
trade sanctions or international disputes. Expanding vaccine access to developing nations is not
only a moral obligation, it is economically effective. Recent data show that nationalistic vaccine
policies will cost the world an estimated $1.2 trillion per year.[iii] In fact, wealthier nations have
already purchased more than 53 percent of the supply of the most promising vaccines.[iv] In
addition to the public funding and support they have already received, pharmaceutical companies
are already seeing significant COVID-19 vaccine revenue.[v] As countries worldwide compete
for limited supplies, developing nations will have to pay pharmaceutical corporations monopoly
prices for access. This harsh reality is already unfolding before our eyes with reports of South
Africa paying more than double the price paid by the European Union for the AstraZeneca
vaccine.[vi]

On the other hand, for each dollar wealthy nations invest in getting vaccines to the poorest
countries, they will receive approximately $4.80 in return. The American public paid
pharmaceutical and medical device industry giants billions of taxpayer dollars to expedite
research and development of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics. The best return for the
American public on such an extraordinary investment would be the swift defeat of the virus
across the globe through mass vaccination. Delaying vaccine deployment in the developing
world to lock in profit boosting patent protections threatens the safety of the American public
that financed the vaccines in the first place.

Further, in the United States, Congress has appropriated billions of dollars of emergency relief
for the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries and is planning billions more. The airline
industry alone has received $40B in relief over the course of the pandemic and an additional
$14B is being considered.[vii] These industries will remain in crisis and reliant on billions more in
government help until the pandemic eases. The faster we can bring this emergency to an end, the
faster these industries can recover. The TRIPS waiver is key to the end of the pandemic and a
strong American recovery.

As COVID-19 ravages the globe, we know that any vaccine or therapeutic pharmaceutical
corporations develop is 100 percent ineffective for those that cannot access it. This global
pandemic has forced all of us to re-prioritize and work together to flatten the curve and overcome
the virus. We need to make public policy choices, both in the U.S. and at the WTO that put lives
first. This temporary, targeted TRIPS waiver is a critical tool in overcoming this once-in-alifetime pandemic; the benefits vastly outweigh the red herring arguments used by the pharmaceutical industry against the approval of this targeted, time-limited waiver.

Your Administration has the opportunity to reverse the damage done by the Trump
Administration to our nation's global reputation and restore America's public health leadership
on the world stage. To bring the pandemic to its quickest end and save the lives of Americans
and people around the world, we ask that you prioritize people over pharmaceutical company
profits by reversing the Trump position and announcing U.S. support for the WTO TRIPS
waiver.

Sincerely,