Joe biden buy out covid vaccine ipr

Joe biden buy out covid vaccine ipr

In his conversation with leaders of close allies from Europe, President-Elect Joe Biden has made it clear that the US would reverse course from his predecessor’s America-first isolationism. ‘We’re going to be back in the game,’ he said. May we suggest that there would be no better gesture to demonstrate US commitment to the world at large than for the US government to buy out the intellectual property rights (IPRs) to up-and-coming coronavirus vaccines and waive any licence fee for developers around the world. If he were to offer to buy out the IP of American vaccine developers, that would, perhaps, set a model for the EU to buy out the IP of Europe-based vaccine developers and render vaccines free of expensive licence fees for capable vaccine producers to mass-produce the vaccine at minimal cost.

As it is, vaccine distribution could prove quite expensive for most developing countries, as messenger RNA-based vaccines need to be stored at –70° C. To free the vaccines of the cost of IP would lower the cost of achieving mass vaccination. The reality is that while rich countries have bought up large volumes of the initial batches of promising vaccines for their citizens, they can stay secure from the virus only when the rest of the world is vaccinated. After all, in the modern world, avoiding contact with the rest of the world is next to impossible. Vaccinating at least 60% of the world’s population calls for very large numbers of vaccine doses. India and South Africa have called for waiver of the IP rights on vaccines for Covid, as have other individuals and leaders.

Lowering the cost of vaccines by shaving the cost of IP licences from the price of vaccines is one of the surest ways for the Biden administration to demonstrate how different it is from the Trump administration, which walked out of the World Health Organisation, instead of leading it to greater global public health action. It would be high-visibility global leadership that serves as enlightened self-interest. Go for it, President-Elect Biden.