Every holiday season marks a time when people are swept up in the spirit of giving. Unfortunately, the Biden administration remains oblivious to the fact that our nation’s feelings of generosity do not extend to handing over some of our most valuable American-made intellectual property to foreign competitors.
Defying sound policy and common sense, the White House continues to embrace policies that dilute the value of the patents, inventions and technology it took scientists and medical professionals years and billions of dollars to create.
In October, the International Trade Commission released its report on a possible expansion of the intellectual property rights waiver for COVID-19 vaccines under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to include COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics. The administration supported the TRIPS Waiver in its original form, but this most recent report fails to justify gifting even more American IP to foreign rivals.
Bringing cures and treatments to the market entails substantial financial investments, clinical trials and regulatory approvals. Despite this risky and lengthy undertaking, rigorous IP protections serve as critical incentives for medical innovators to invest in research and development. Diluting these protections discourages taking on the risks and costs of creating cutting-edge treatments and harms the countless consumers and patients who rely on revolutionary innovations and lifesaving care.
An expanded TRIPS Waiver that diminishes IP protections would deter the private sector from committing the necessary resources to expand the library of knowledge critical to developing a response to outbreaks and pandemics such as we just experienced with COVID-19. Fewer innovations and available treatments at a time of growing and unexpected public health concerns leave us vulnerable and unprepared for a future public health emergency.
What is especially troubling is the TRIPS Waiver gives away valuable medical technology to repressive regimes and adversaries worldwide. Increasing government interference with an expanded TRIPS Waiver would delight China. For instance, China could use COVID-19 technologies to undermine the economic competitiveness of the United States and its allies. When China’s theft of American IP already costs us as much as $600 billion a year, it is utterly unthinkable that the White House would lobby to reward China even further with access to some of our most valuable technological assets.
Anyone following healthcare policies will recognize the TRIPS Waiver as one more assault on American innovation in science and medicine and one more attack on our ability to win the fight against our most deadly diseases and debilitating conditions. At every opportunity, the White House has embraced increased government intervention and control policies of Americans’ healthcare choices and decisions.
Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act’s price-setting “negotiation” scheme is already reaping the harm predicted. Seagen Inc. CEO David Epstein recently stated that the biotech company plans to scrap a new cancer drug study because of the law. Many manufacturers are decreasing R&D because of the administration’s radical agenda.
An expanded TRIPS Waiver would only add fuel to the fire and further degrade America’s competitiveness and leadership in medical innovation. This would be disastrous for our economy, which depends on a solid foundation of IP protections. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office reported that IP-intensive industries accounted for 41 percent of the economy in 2019 and were responsible for more than 47 million jobs.
The TRIPS Waiver is another example of political elites purchasing the appearance of being altruistic statesmen at the expense of every American’s future health and safety, a point made clear by the administration’s delay in rejecting this pernicious proposal. The findings of the recent USITC report offer no excuse for the continued delay, especially as the report gave no definitive indication that IP protections were affecting other nations’ access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The COVID-19 public health emergency is over, eliminating the last excuse for regulators to interfere with lifesaving R&D. The U.S. patent system is an important foundation for America’s innovative spirit. Compromising American IP is an unnecessary blunder that would impede lifesaving medications, vaccines and treatments for years. If someone could fill a prescription for common sense, the Biden administration would reject calls for an expanded TRIPS Waiver.
