Two medical ethicists are the latest to argue that the World Trade Organization must lift patent protections on Covid-19 vaccines to save lives both in the Global South, where inoculations against the virus are lagging, and in wealthy countries which is likely to face future infectious disease outbreaks if they continue hoarding the supplies needed to fight the current public health crisis.
"Everyone, but especially wealthier nations, needs to help develop vaccine-manufacturing capacity in low- and middle-income countries because Covid-19 unfortunately won't be the last pandemic the world faces."
—Nancy Jecker, University of Washington
The authors wrote that the WTO should temporarily waive the 1995 Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, which protects intellectual property rights for pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the vaccines.
The paper was published in the Journal of Medical Ethics as the World Health Organization denounced efforts in wealthy nations like the U.S. and Britain to gain approval for booster shots—third doses of Covid-19 vaccines for added protection against the highly transmissable Delta variant, when billions of people worldwide have not received one dose.
Representatives from Pfizer met with U.S. officials Monday to discuss potential Food and Drug Administration approval for a booster shot, which the company says could significantly increase immunity in people who have had two doses of its vaccine.
With countries all over the world struggling to protect their populations as people in highly-vaccinated areas of the U.S. begin to return to their pre-pandemic routines, Jecker said, "I do not think these restrictions [on vaccine patents] are ethically defensible."
"I would be happy to see a temporary waiver enacted and set a precedent, so that when we are in the next global health crisis, we can make changes again and adapt to protect people," she said.
Instead, Jecker said, Pfizer and Moderna are being permitted to protect their profits while the WTO considers two proposals for lifting patent protections: one which would waive patents on Covid-19 medical products "until widespread vaccination is in place globally" and one which would enable manufacturers in the Global South to license vaccines for production.
"One of the main ethical justifications for maintaining IP protections is that profits are necessary to spur innovation and discovery," Jecker said. "But how much money does it take?"
This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Julia Conley.
Julia Conley | Radio Free (2021-07-12T18:35:44+00:00) ‘Humanity Must Stand Together’: Top Medical Ethicists Demand Vaccine Patent Waivers. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2021/07/12/humanity-must-stand-together-top-medical-ethicists-demand-vaccine-patent-waivers/
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