The announcement that the American President might go along with some countries looking for such a move immediately sent the stock prices for the leading vaccine companies down…
Within hours of the announcement word was spread that such a move would ‘take time’, if ever….Biden cannot do this on his own…It must be approved by other countries also….
The idea is being floated to deal with the fact that some poorer countries have not been able to acquire significant stocks of virus vaccines…
The US has already sent stocks of vaccines to Canada and Mexico and India is looking for more vaccines…(The US and other countries SHOULD be exporting any excess vaccines )
There would be serious questions about actually throwing the manufacturing of vaccine around the world by places that might not have the ability to maintain certain standards…
But the bottom line is that such a move would hurt Western Medical companies financially ….
Support from the White House is not a guarantee that a waiver will be adopted. The European Union has also been standing in the way, and changes to international intellectual property rules require unanimous agreement. Ms. Tai said the United States would participate in negotiations at the World Trade Organization over the matter, but that they would “take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.”
Standing against her will be the pharmaceutical industry, which responded angrily to the extraordinary decision. Stephen J. Ubl, the president and chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, called the announcement “an unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and compromise safety.”
“This decision will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines,” he said in a statement, adding that the move would have the effect of “handing over American innovations to countries looking to undermine our leadership in biomedical discovery.”…
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The pharmaceutical industry argued that waiving intellectual property rights would not speed up vaccine production, pointing to other barriers like access to raw materials and distribution issues. Pfizer has said the company’s vaccine requires 280 components from 86 suppliers in 19 countries, as well as highly specialized equipment and personnel…
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Supporters in the Senate included two leading progressives: Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. On Wednesday, Mr. Sanders praised Mr. Biden, declaring that “this is exactly the kind of leadership the world needs right now.”…
Hopefully Germany and the EU put a stop to Biden’s madness…I know he is a good guy, but we also have to make money and protect our technology…Buy more of it and give to the world…
I doubt Biden will be able to this….
It IS stupid….
Just send the excess vaccines abroad….
WTF???
According to all I’ve read on the subject,just making this information available would have little effect for at least a year and probably longer.
Further the likely two biggest beneficiaries would be China and Russia as they have the ability to move into production fairly rapidly.
Overall this makes little sense and seems to just be a jab at big pharma, a target of mine on occasion.However, I give them total credit on the swift development of these vaccines.
There is no point in doing this,