The US is backing the suspension of Covid vaccine patents in the pandemic

The U.S. has called for a temporary suspension of the intellectual property rights to Covid-19 vaccines in a move that will anger the pharmaceutical industry, which is strongly opposed to the so-called waiver.

Joe Biden, chief commercial adviser to Katherine Tai, said that while the U.S. administration “strongly believes” in IP protections, it will accept the waiver of these vaccination rules.

“It’s a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in a statement.

The shares of major coronary vaccine companies received the announcements on Wednesday. Shares of Moderna, BioNTech and Novavax fell between 5 and 7 percent in New York trading, and Pfizer’s share prices fell nearly 1 percent before recovering.

The companies did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

The country proposed a measure to temporarily revoke the patent rights for pandemic-related medical products in October at the World Trade Organization in India and South Africa, which has since been backed by nearly 60 countries.

The Donald Trump administration was firmly opposed to the WTO’s rejection, along with the UK, EU and Switzerland, but Tai shook the U.S. pharmaceutical company by examining that stance.

Tai said the US will “actively participate” in text-based negotiations in the WTO, but that these negotiations will take time given the nature of the institution’s consensus and the complexity of the issues involved.

“As the supply of vaccines to Americans is assured, the administration will continue to step up its efforts – working with the private sector and all possible partners – to expand the manufacture and distribution of vaccines,” Tai said.

“We will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce these vaccines,” he added.

Tai and his staff have been discussing WTO IP rules in recent weeks with pharmaceutical companies and vaccine officials, unions, advocacy groups and Seth Berkley, the director general of the UN-sponsored vaccine alliance Gavi.

In a report at the WTO meeting on vaccine equity earlier this month, Tai said the government and the private sector should do their part to fulfill the “spirit” of the Parties to the Trade in Intellectual Property Rights. (Travel) agreement, born out of the HIV crisis.

Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health Gregg Gonsalves welcomed the announcement on Wednesday as a “start”.

He added: “We need to be transparent and public in writing the text of this denial. But as we have always said, we need technology transfer now and the US will have to use the $ 16 billion already raised in the American Rescue Plan to lay the groundwork for international and domestic manufacturing. There is no going back. “

Earlier this week, President Anthony Fauci’s chief medical adviser said he was “agnostic” when asked if he should resign, but warned of the political consequences of pushing the move.

He said: “Going forward and moving forward, consuming time and lawyers in a legal argument about refusals – that’s not the end. People are dying all over the world and we need to get vaccines into our arms as quickly and effectively as possible.”

His comments provoked a reaction from pro-Biden liberals, especially when questioned by journalist Mehdi Hasan on his TV show.

Saikat Chakrabati, president of the Left New Consensus Repository, responded to Fauci’s comments in a tweet: “Refusing Covid patents is by no means exclusive of giving vaccine doses to countries now.”

He added: “You don’t have the privilege of being ‘agnostic’ when you’re the president’s chief medical adviser. There’s nothing like agnostic. Agnostic means making the status quo, and that’s the decision itself.”