Boris Johnson urged to waive vaccine patents ‘for the sake of all humanity’

Johnson has been told to follow Biden in step towards ‘worldwide immunity’, Liam James writes

(Reuters)

Campaigners have urged Boris Johnson to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines to boost global production.

Hundreds of public health experts, academics, charities, unions, healthcare workers and others signed a letter to the prime minister calling on him to “stand on the right side of history” after Joe Biden pledged US support for a waiver.

The Biden administration announced on Wednesday it would support a waiver in an attempt to scale up the production of vaccines for people in poorer countries.

Katherine Tai, the president's top trade negotiator, said the administration's aim was to "get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible."

The move was welcomed by the World Health Organisation and director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was "a monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19".

Under the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement, pharmaceutical companies have monopoly control over vaccine production. Campaigners argue this could prevent poor countries from ramping up their own supplies but critics of the patent waiver say it would be ineffective as problems in supply chains are behind vaccine shortages.

In the letter to the prime minister, campainers urged the government to "reconsider the UK government’s opposition to [the waiver] that is supported by over 100 countries worldwide and is crucial towards ending this global pandemic and achieving worldwide immunity."

More than 70 cross-party MPs and peers also signed the letter, including former Green party leader Caroline Lucas MP, Liberal democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Layla Moran, Labour peer Baroness Chakrabarti and former Conservative ministers Baroness Verma and Dr Daniel Poulter MP.

Recent polling by YouGov for the People's Vaccine Alliance found that three-quarters of people in the UK want the government to prevent pharmaceutical companies from developing monopolies on Covid-19 vaccines

Saoirse Fitzpatrick, advocacy manager at STOPAIDS, said: “Across the world, people are dying needlessly from Covid-19 because we aren’t producing enough vaccines.

"What charitable programmes like Covax miss is that this is a problem of supply – and one of the biggest barriers to maximising supply is intellectual property restrictions.

“This letter demonstrates the clear consensus that is emerging around this common-sense solution, backed by experts, patients, politicians, scientists, and economists. The prime minister must follow in Joe Biden’s footsteps and support it.”

Despite initial doubts, the US bowed to pressure to support a WTO proposal for a waiver in the face of opposition from the powerful pharmaceutical lobby.

The UK government said in April it was “working with WTO members to resolve this issue” and was “in discussions with the US and WTO members to facilitate increased production and supply of Covid-19 vaccines”.

The European Union has also not yet moved to support a waiver. EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the day after Biden's pledge that the bloc "should be open to discussion" over patents, but she has seen pushback from national leaders including Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel.