Activists urge Biden to push for intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines

Activists urge Biden to push for intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines

“U.S. passivity has empowered close U.S. allies – the European Union, on behalf of Germany, plus Switzerland and the United Kingdom – to block progress even as millions die or become seriously ill waiting for effective vaccines and treatments,” the groups wrote.

They urged Biden to step up his personal engagement and lead the world in reaching a meaningful agreement on the long-standing issue. Doing so would help end the pandemic and restore U.S. standing around the world, they said.

Activists say they have gathered 3 million signatures on petitions urging Biden to step up U.S. efforts and will deliver them on Tuesday.

The White House had no immediate comment on the letter, which was dated Friday.

Ending the ministerial meeting without a waiver agreement would be entirely unacceptable,” the groups said. They said drugmakers were using their intellectual property rights to segment global markets instead of maximizing the scale of generic production.

U.S officials oppose a separate effort to issue a “declaration on trade and health” led by David Walker, the New Zealand envoy to the WTO, according to a Geneva trade delegate and a second source briefed on the matter.

In their letter, the groups said the declaration, if passed without a meaningful intellectual property rights waiver, would “further undermine the WTO’s relevance and legitimacy.”

Reporting by Andrea Shalal; additional reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva; editing by Stephen Coates and Giles Elgood

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Reuters source:

https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/activists-urge-biden-push-intellectual-property-waiver-covid-19-vaccines-2021-11-22