It is a 360-degree turn described as “historic” and “heroic” for the United States.
The announcement, Wednesday, May 5, by US President Joe Biden, that he was in favor of a temporary lifting of patents on vaccines against Covid-19 took everyone by surprise.
Washington was, in fact, among the staunchest supporters of pharmaceutical patents.
The United States was still opposed, in October 2020, to the request then made by India and South Africa before the World Trade Organization (WTO) to lift this legal protection enjoyed by laboratories over time. of the pandemic.
However, this is the same proposal to which Joe Biden has just given his weighty support.
Urgency and political pressure
This turnaround - hailed by the World Health Organization (WHO), southern countries and NGOs such as Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders - owes a lot to political pressure in the United States and on the international scene.
Influential figures within the Democratic Party have been asking the US president for several months to consider support for the lifting of patents on vaccines. This is the case, since February 2021, of some “stars” of the left wing of the party such as Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. But more moderate, and no less influential Democrats like Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, have also expressed support for a change in stance.
All these American elected officials only amplified a message carried by a growing number of international organizations, countries and scientists.
Whether it was Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director of the WHO, a collective of more than 70 epidemiologists and virologists, or nearly a hundred states, it seemed difficult to ignore this claim.
According to them, there is an emergency.
The traditional opposition of rich countries and pharmaceutical companies to this lifting of patents is, today, "reckless and amounts to self-harm", assures Gabriel Scally, a researcher in public health at the University of Bristol, in a column published by the Guardian.
The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, which are more transmissible and potentially more resistant to vaccines, has changed the situation, he said.
Rich countries can no longer afford to monopolize the stocks of vaccines available to protect their populations at the expense of poorer countries.
This would leave the field open to the virus in large parts of the world where it could mutate until it becomes stronger than vaccines.
In which case, "all the efforts undertaken in the wealthy countries to return to a normal life thanks to the vaccination campaigns would have been in vain", he concludes.
“It's a race against time,” confirms Ellen 't Hoen, an American specialist in patent and health policy issues, in an article for the Barron's business site.
Fewer patents for more vaccines
But to vaccinate the whole world as quickly as possible, “you first have to increase production capacity,” adds Ellen 't Hoen.
“The annual production capacity of Covid-19 vaccines is currently 3.5 billion doses, while 11 billion would need to be manufactured to vaccinate (administer the two doses) to 70% of the (global) population and reach collective immunity, ”she explains.
And that's the rub.
Several pharmaceutical companies in India, Canada and Bangladesh have asked Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to share their know-how with them to increase production capacities.
Without success, recalls the daily Indian Express.
The lifting of patents would allow everyone to have access to the recipes for these vaccines.
“Low- and middle-income countries could thus set up their own pharmaceutical production infrastructure,” emphasizes Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
This would allow the vaccines to be distributed more quickly to the local population, and these generics could be sold much cheaper.
For the head of the WHO, this temporary lifting of patents would not be a blessing to overcome this health crisis.
By developing local infrastructure and acquiring vaccine know-how, developing countries would be better prepared for future epidemics.
The opposition in order of battle
Vaccine manufacturers retort that it is precisely to better combat future health threats that they need patent protection.
The lobby of the American pharmaceutical industry thus sent a letter, at the beginning of May, to Joe Biden, to warn him that such a decision would encourage less laboratories to invest in research.
The argument is well known.
Patents allow them to pocket the fruits of their discovery without fear of competition and these profits are then reinvested to develop new treatments.
A logic to which investors are very sensitive since the stock market shares of the main pharmaceutical groups fell after the announcement of Joe Biden.
But this is not the only criticism leveled at the lifting of patents. Leading figures such as billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates or Anthony Fauci, the Mr. Covid of the US administration, have suggested that this may not be the right solution for the current situation.
They believe it is a “bad idea”. Patents, in themselves, would not be enough to manufacture vaccines, especially "for a technology as innovative as mRna vaccines (messenger RNA, those of Moderna and Pfizer)", underlines the Washington Post. These patents “are like recipes. They provide essential information on the ingredients and the procedure to follow, but do not necessarily provide information on the right way to cook or on the chef's touch that ensures the quality of the dish ”, summarize Ana Santos Rutschman and Julia Barnes-Weise, two intellectual property law specialists, respectively at Saint Louis University and Harvard University, in an article published by Harvard Law School.
It would therefore be necessary to set up a whole system of collaboration between the groups which developed the vaccines and the laboratories which had to reproduce them.
“It would require countless back and forth, with lawyers involved at every step.
It would take a long time, ”said Anthony Fauci, interviewed by the Financial Times.
For him, this energy might be better used elsewhere.
These companies should be “encouraged to voluntarily enter into cooperation agreements with production centers to increase the availability of vaccines” around the world.
States would just as well do more to ban existing mechanisms, like Covax, the WHO vaccine sharing and distribution program.
But for those in favor of lifting patents, the appeal for the goodwill of pharmaceutical companies “has never, until now, produced satisfactory results,” emphasizes Ellen 't Hoen.
The obstacle of the WTO
Which doesn't mean Joe Biden's announcement is going to solve the problem overnight.
“This is the first of three stages.
First, we have to lift the patents, then we have to organize the transfer of technologies and, finally, we will have to massively increase the production capacity ”, summarizes Rachel Cohen, director of the Initiative for drugs and neglected diseases, a American NGO, interviewed by the scientific journal Nature.
If the last two steps will probably take time, the urgency is already to pass this first step.
And unanimity at the WTO is required on these questions.
It is not already won.
“Joe Biden's announcement will push other countries hitherto resistant to the idea of joining this initiative,” said the Washington Post.
Germany and France, hitherto opposed to the idea, followed the American example on Wednesday.
But all it takes is one voice to screw it up.
This WTO meeting, which is due to end on Thursday, is probably one of the most important for determining in which direction the fight against the pandemic will go.
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR