Guest Commentary

Liberals in Congress are actively campaigning to force price controls on drug manufacturers. The House has already passed bills that would limit the amount of money pharmaceutical companies can charge for drugs. The fate of this proposed legislation is uncertain in the U.S. Senate.

At the same time, the Biden Administration and others on the political left are attacking the companies that have made the COVID-19 vaccines. They seek a waiver to the 1994 TRIPS Act, which was accepted by all countries in the World Trade Organization. The Biden Administration recently announced the U.S. would support the waiver now working its way through the WTO.

A bit of history is required. TRIPS is an acronym for Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. It protects copyrights and patents across country borders for any member of the WTO. Countries are required to agree to the TRIPS Act when they join the WTO. Violation of TRIPS would lead to trade sanctions and possible expulsion from the WTO.

Members of the political left are using two arguments to support the waiver. The first is the common-good, moralistic argument that drug manufacturers must share their vaccines with the world. The second is the blackmail argument that if the rest of the world is not vaccinated, the virus will spread back to the United States.

Drug manufacturers are opposed to the waiver, for several very good reasons. First, it would set an extremely damaging precedent. It would crack open a door to the loss of the international protection of any original invention or publication. The “common-good” argument could then be used to steal any original work or product.

This leads to the second reason to oppose the waiver. If any country could claim the right to use a new product or invention, there would be very little incentive to develop these new innovations. The world would see fewer lifesaving drugs, fewer life-improving inventions, and fewer new musical and literary works. For example, Microsoft or Boeing would have no control over who could copy and produce their products. Another example is the Operation Warp Speed initiative which produced an effective vaccine to end a global pandemic in record time, in just months instead of years. If a new TRIPS policy is in place that stifles innovation, future administrations won’t have this option when the next pandemic threatens the world.

In addition, even with a waiver and forcing companies to share their proprietary vaccines, there is little evidence that from a timing standpoint it would impact the current COVID-19 surge in other countries. The waiver would be a “feel good” gesture with no demonstrable clinical outcome. It would, however, hurt U.S. innovation, impede the creation of new medicines in the future, and ultimately hurt patients.

Every American, not just drug manufacturers, should be very concerned about the proposed TRIPS waiver.

-Roger Stark, M.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Health Care for the Washington Policy Center.