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Joe Biden promised last year to reaffirm the U.S. government’s approach to the pharmaceutical industry by supporting the movement to end companies ’rights to enforce their intellectual property in Covid vaccines. “This is the only human thing to do in the world,” he said At a campaign event in July 2020.
But until the decision was announced this week, many in the government and industry questioned whether the U.S. president would live up to his campaign promise. Not only did some senior members of his administration have doubts, but few pharmacy executives believed that a U.S. government would take such a loud stance against the industry’s strong lobby.
“No one thought he would take the Biden pharmacy lobby, [they thought] he would be too scared, ”said Brandon Barford, a Washington partner in Beacon Policy Advisers. “But before the financial crisis [of 2008], everyone thought that the financial services industry was intangible, then it changed. This week, pharmaceutical companies have shown that they are new banks. “
In October last year, India and South Africa approached the World Trade Organization with a proposal eten The intellectual property rights of all Covid-related drugs and technologies were quickly thrown down. The US and EU opposed the suspension of the Trips intellectual property agreement for Covid medicines, but blocked the discussion.
Biden’s comments on the campaign trail opened up the possibility of a change in U.S. policy. However, even when U.S. Commerce Secretary-General Katherine Tai began a multidisciplinary consultation on the issue last month, most officials believed the U.S. would maintain the stance taken by the Donald Trump administration.
“There is pressure from Democratic members of Congress to do that,” a senior lobby in the pharmaceutical industry told the Financial Times last month. “But the White House will never back down from that.”
Over the next three weeks, Tai met people who were interested in the subject, from union leaders to CEOs of vaccine manufacturers. Many who attended these meetings said it was difficult to know what Tai was planning, but people on both sides of the discussion withdrew from the talks because they accepted their arguments.
He attended a virtual meeting with Asia Russell Tai on April 13 as executive director of Health Gap, an organization focused on improving access to HIV drugs around the world.
“I don’t think it sparked the urge when he met us,” said Russell, who campaigned prominently for resignation. “But he told us that the government’s response to the Covid crisis could not have been normal. We were very pleased.”
Two weeks later, Tai held virtual meetings for each company they have had with senior management Covid vaccines They are licensed in or near the US: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax and AstraZeneca.
They he said Accepting the refusal of trips would harm the expansion of U.S. vaccines, increasing competition for scarce vaccine supply, allowing Russia and China access to technological advances in America. “We made a strong case and he certainly seemed to be listening,” said a person from the pharmaceutical industry who attended the talks.
According to those who have confronted Tai, one of his greatest assets cannot be endeavored. “[Tai] he’s never the person you’d like in your poker game because his ass is going to be kicked, ”said one person who took part in the consultations.“ He has the best poker face. ”
Meanwhile, senior members of the Biden administration were expressing concerns about the resignation. Gina Raimondo, the trade secretary, was the most direct, according to several people who participated in the discussions, as her U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was particularly concerned about the impact it had on America’s long-term intellectual property rights.
Several friends also said that David Kessler, the head of Operation Warp Speed, the government program that helped develop the vaccines, refused. One person involved in the consultations said Kessler described it as the “third railroad” in the pharmaceutical industry, so the heavy load should not be touched. A Kessler spokesman did not respond to the request.
One of the biggest voices of concern was Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser and America’s best-known public health expert. Two days before the decision was announced, Fauci he told the Financial Times he was “agnostic” on the subject, but was concerned that the U.S. could confuse the long-running lawsuits of pharmaceutical companies.
Fauci’s comments provoked a reaction from the progressive campaigners, who accused the administration of bowing to the pharmacy lobby.
People inside the administration have said that the anger of the progressives is not what won the day.
Instead, Tai and Jake Sullivan, national security advisers, both argued that it was a low-risk path to not exporting more vaccines to the Biden administration for a diplomatic victory. unless you respond quickly enough To the ongoing Covid crisis in India. The lawsuits were a remote threat, how long the WTO negotiations would last and perhaps not happen at all, including others in the UK and the EU, if they continued to oppose the move.
A day after Fauci made his comments, Tai presented the conclusions to Biden at a meeting at the Oval Office. President Ron Klain’s chief of staff, Bruce Reed, Klain’s replacement, Sullivan and Jeff Zients, head of the White House Covid working group, also attended. None of the prominent opponents of the idea attended; Raimondo was in Connecticut at the time, according to his department.
The president and his advisers were particularly persuaded to reject a refusal for diplomatic reasons, those who reported the meeting said. “This is not a measure to end the pandemic,” one administration official said. “But it makes sense politically.”
Disclaimer campaigns say they will now monitor the WTO discussions to move them to a place where utility does not cease to exist. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already said she continues to oppose the measure.
But Washington says whatever the outcome of the WTO talks, the U.S. pharmaceutical industry has lost its shine of inviolability. This could have major implications for future political debates, such as how to lower U.S. drug costs, as patent protections allow pharmaceutical companies to charge premium prices for a period of time without fear of competition from cheaper generic opponents.
“There is now a broad consensus in the Democratic Party that something needs to be done about drug prices,” Barford said. “What the president has just done is to show that it can be done.”
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