[Two articles: Pharma Loses Vaccine IP Battle Despite Record Q1
Lobbying (Open Secrets) -- Vaccine Patent Waivers Face More Hurdles
Despite Biden Support (The Hill)] [[link removed]]

PHARMA LOSES VACCINE IP BATTLE DESPITE RECORD Q1 LOBBYING -- VACCINE
PATENT WAIVERS FACE MORE HURDLES DESPITE BIDEN SUPPORT  
[[link removed]]


 

Alyce McFadden, Nathaniel Weixel
May 4, 2021
Open Secrets, The Hill

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_ Two articles: Pharma Loses Vaccine IP Battle Despite Record Q1
Lobbying (Open Secrets) -- Vaccine Patent Waivers Face More Hurdles
Despite Biden Support (The Hill) _

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PHARMA LOSES VACCINE IP BATTLE DESPITE RECORD Q1 LOBBYING
Alyce McFadden
Open Secrets
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
May 4, 2021

Despite spending a record-breaking $92 million to lobby the federal
government in the first three months of 2021, pharmaceutical interests
suffered a major loss on Wednesday when President Joe Biden
[[link removed]] announced that the
U.S. will support some countries’ efforts to waive intellectual
property protections on COVID-19 vaccines. 

The industry
[[link removed]]’s
spending in the first three months of 2021 represents a 6.3 percent
increase over the same time period last year, putting drug companies
on track to break their combined all-time spending record for the
second year in a row. Private manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and
health products typically far outspend other industries to lobby
Washington. In 2021, the industry has already spent more than double
the sum spent by the second highest-spending industry.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America
[[link removed]],
the nation’s largest pharmaceutical trade association, is
perennially the industry’s largest lobbying spender and this year is
no exception. So far, the association has spent $8.7 million on K
Street. Industry giant and leading COVID vaccine manufacturer Pfizer
[[link removed]] rang in as
the No. 2 lobbying client, spending $3.7 million. The
company reported
[[link removed]] Tuesday
that it raked in $3.5 billion in profits from sales of the vaccine
during the first three months of 2021 alone.  

PhRMA and Pfizer both lobbied hard against
[[link removed]] the
WTO waiver, which PhRMA said
[[link removed]] could
“create confusion” and “undermine public confidence in vaccine
safety.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
[[link removed]] —
the top overall lobbying spender
[[link removed]] in
2021 — also opposed
[[link removed]] the
waiver. 

“In the midst of a deadly pandemic, the Biden Administration has
taken 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,”
said PhRMA president Stephen Ubl in a statement
[[link removed]].

South Africa and India, two countries where coronavirus infections
continue to surge, brought the patent waiver proposal to the World
Trade Organization in March. More than 170 former heads of state and
Nobel prize winners from around the world called on Biden to
“provide an example of responsible leadership at a time when it is
needed most on global health” in an open letter
[[link removed]].
Democratic lawmakers also urged the president to support the
measure.  

“It is unconscionable that amid a global health crisis, huge
multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies continue to prioritize
profits by protecting their monopolies and driving up prices rather
than prioritizing the lives of people everywhere, including in the
Global South,” Sen. Bernie Sanders
[[link removed]] (I-Vt.)
said in a video
[[link removed]] statement.

According to the United Nations
[[link removed]], low-income countries
have administered just 0.2 percent of the global supply of vaccine
doses so far. 

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property
protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the
waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines. We will actively
participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization
needed to make that happen,” said Katherine Tai, the U.S. ambassador
to the WTO, in a statement
[[link removed]] announcing
the decision.

Lobbying ramps up against Democrats’ drug pricing plan 

House Democrats introduced a bill
[[link removed]],
H.R. 3, that would give Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices
with manufacturers and cap out-of-pocket spending for medication at
$2,000. The bill is not expected to surpass the 60-vote threshold
necessary to survive a Republican filibuster in the Senate, and
prominent Democrats are reportedly planning to attach
[[link removed]] H.R.
3 to Biden’s sweeping American Families Plan in order to push the
proposed change through during the reconciliation period. 

Though Biden did not include Medicare expansion or drug pricing
regulations in the original draft of the American Families Plan, the
president highlighted his support for policies to bring down the price
of prescription drugs as a part of his first joint address to
Congress. 

“Let’s give Medicare the power to save hundreds of billions of
dollars by negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs,”
Biden said
[[link removed]].
“That won’t just help people on Medicare – it will lower
prescription drug costs for everyone.”  

Ubl laid out the association’s opposition to H.R. 3, suggesting that
it could make it harder for Americans to access critical medication,
in an April 22 statement
[[link removed]]. 

“It will also destroy an estimated one million American jobs, cede
our leadership in life sciences, and stifle the development of new
treatments, while failing to address the broader challenges facing
patients,” Ubl said. “It’s unfortunate House leaders are
reintroducing this partisan bill, particularly as we continue to fight
a pandemic.” 

According to the Congressional Budget Office
[[link removed]], the
government could save more than $450 billion in drug purchases over
the next decade if the provisions become law. However, the CBO also
projects that H.R. 3 could lead drug companies to produce new drugs at
a slightly slower rate.   

Under current law, Medicare is required to pay for certain
medications, no matter their cost. This allows drug companies to raise
prices on critical drugs. Previous efforts to alter this rule failed
[[link removed]] during
the administrations of former presidents Barack Obama
[[link removed]] and Donald
Trump
[[link removed]] following
extensive lobbying efforts by the pharmaceutical industry.

ALYCE MCFADDEN is a Reporting Intern at the CENTER FOR RESPONSIVE
POLITICS.  Previously she was Beacon Elections Reporter at Maine
People’s Alliance

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Support Open Secrets. [[link removed]]

VACCINE PATENT WAIVERS FACE MORE HURDLES DESPITE BIDEN SUPPORT
Nathaniel Weixel
The Hill
[link removed]
[[link removed]]
May 8, 2021

The Biden administration made a splash this past week when it backed a
temporary waiver of international patent protections for COVID-19
vaccines at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The sudden announcement delighted U.S. progressives and drug pricing
advocates
[[link removed]],
but roiled the pharmaceutical industry, sending stock prices tumbling.

Yet the move by administration officials was largely symbolic, and
carefully worded.

Numerous hurdles need to be overcome before the intellectual property
(IP) waiver can be turned into policy. And despite the immediate
pushback from the pharmaceutical industry, experts are skeptical of
just how big of an impact it will have on those companies.

"I think the IP issue is an important one, but I think, frankly,
opening up IP is really just one part of a much larger effort," said
Tom Frieden, who was director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention during the Obama administration.

"It may signal to parts of the society that the government is serious
about it, it may signal to industry that the government is serious
about it, but it is not in itself going to make any difference in a
short term in terms of vaccine access," Frieden said.

It will be many months before the WTO even votes on the matter, and if
a waiver passes it will likely be even longer before manufacturing can
be scaled up to develop enough vaccines to have a meaningful impact in
the global fight against the coronavirus.

In an interview with The Washington Post, the head of the WTO said she
would press member countries to reach an agreement on the waiver
petition no later than December, setting up a vote on the final
language at the body's Dec. 3 meeting.

The lengthy timeline raises questions about the effectiveness of an IP
waiver, especially since it might only be narrowly tailored for the
length of the global pandemic.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai
[[link removed]] on Wednesday said she will
pursue “text-based negotiations” on the WTO waiver, acknowledging
that they "will take time given the consensus-based nature of the
institution and the complexity of the issues involved."

Tai did not say the U.S. supports the waiver that was drafted by India
and South Africa, which specifically focuses on vaccines for countries
that have been struggling to obtain enough doses.  

Negotiating an agreement could be a long and messy process.

"It’s really crucial that we begin ramping up manufacturing
immediately, because we’re going to have the likelihood of big
outbreaks around the world in the coming months and years," Frieden
said. "So, a multi-month negotiation is not a formula for rapid
improvement in global vaccine and supply."

In order for a waiver to pass, every country needs to agree. While the
hope is that U.S. support will drive the movement forward, key
American allies in Europe have been raising concerns, and any one of
them could block the move.

"If history is any guide, you know those negotiations are long,
protracted, difficult, complex," said Josh Michaud, an associate
director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Some experts have raised concerns that bigger problems exist, like
ramping up manufacturing capacity, increasing supplies of raw
materials and providing the technical know-how to be able to make the
vaccines, which could occur under voluntary agreements between
companies without waiving patents.

Michaud, like Frieden, said the waiver itself "won't move the needle"
in terms of creating more manufacturing capacity.

But the U.S. decision to enter the negotiation process puts pressure
on other countries and the pharmaceutical industry to find a way
forward. Governments might use their leverage to work with
pharmaceutical companies, or move companies toward technology transfer
and licensing deals.

"This decision could lay the foundation for companies to start taking
the idea more seriously about sharing the know-how, and for supply
chains to be ramped up as much as possible, even more than they are
now, to support the goal of manufacturing," Michaud said.

"Those are the things that are going to really start to make a
difference, maybe not immediately, but over a longer period of
time,” he said, adding that the “waiver kind of sets the tone. It
lays the groundwork for the debate that is yet to come.”

There is also concern that President Biden
[[link removed]]'s decision to support a patent
waiver could have long-term ramifications on his relationship with the
drug industry.

NATHANIEL WEIXEL is Health reporter at THE HILL, he was previously at
Bloomberg BNA

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