Pfizer Is Using Patent Rules to Undercut Global Access to the COVID-19 Vaccine
If ever there were a time to suspend global patent rules to ensure widespread distribution of a vaccine, right now is it. Yet pharma giant Pfizer is currently opposing a proposal at the World Trade Organization to expand vaccine access to poor countries, hoping to hoard distribution — and profits — rather than save lives.
(Marco Verch / Flickr)
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, whose COVID-19 vaccine with German partner BioNTech was approved December 11 for emergency use in the United States, has emerged as a vocal opponent of a global effort to ensure poor countries are able to access the vaccine.
In October, India and South Africa put forward a proposal that the World Trade Organization (WTO) pause enforcement of patents for COVID-19 treatments, under the organization’s intellectual property agreement, “Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights,” or TRIPS. Now supported by nearly a hundred countries, the proposal would allow for the more affordable production of generic treatments during the duration of the pandemic.
As wealthy countries hoard vaccine stocks, and one study warns a quarter of the world’s population won’t get the vaccine until 2022, the proposal — if approved — could potentially save countless lives in the Global South.
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