IFPTE Joins Over 430 Organizations to Call on President Biden to Support Waiver of COVID Medical Patent Rights

In a letter organized by the Citizen’s Trade Campaign, hundreds of organizing – labor, fair trade advocates, public health groups, religious communities, and civil society organizations – urged President Biden to reverse the U.S. government’s position and allow a waiver of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) so that people in developing countries can have access to COVID-19 medicines, diagnostics, medical equipment, and vaccines.

The TRIPS waiver was proposed by developing nations in the recognition that many countries have manufacturing capacity but do not have legal access to the intellectual property for lifesaving COVID technologies. The waiver would temporarily remove patent protections for COVID-related medical products. Currently, the small handful of COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic medicine manufacturers are unable to adequately meet global demand.

Allowing the waiver would not only benefit people throughout the world, but would help all nations contain the pandemic, reopen international travel, and move the world forward toward global economic recovery. See the CEPR’s article “Want Vaccines Fast? Suspend Intellectual Property Rights” for an account of the extent to which public resources have funded medical technologies that are controlled by pharmaceutical monopolies and subject by private intellectual property rights under TRIPS.

Congressional Representatives lead by Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, (D-Conn.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are calling on President Biden urging he remove the U.S. block on the TRIPS waiver.

The TRIPS waiver is currently being blocked by five World Trade Organization (WTO) members: the U.S., the European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan. President Biden’s reversal of the U.S. position would serve as an affirmative signal that advanced economies cannot allow trade rules to hinder the global pandemic response and prevent countries from meeting the urgent health needs. The WTO will meet in the first week of March to revisit the TRIPS waiver issue.

Read the letter and find more information on Citizen’s Trade Campaign’s website and Public Citizen’s website.