ANALYSIS: Biden's vaccine waiver "pretty marginal" for increasing supply. Germany opposes

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Fri, 2021-05-07 10:19 — mike kraft

‘It’s pretty marginal’: Experts say Biden’s vaccine waiver unlikely to boost supply quickly The head of the World Trade Organization says she will seek a decision by December, but some doubt the 164 members can reach consensus. Tyler Pager, Dan Diamond, Jeff Stein Washington Post

The Biden administration’s support of a petition to ease patent protections for vaccines elevated the global battle against the coronavirus as a central plank of U.S. foreign policy, but myriad hurdles remain before that stance could become international policy — if ever.

As a result, it could be months, or longer, before the World Trade Organization reaches an agreement to temporarily waive the protections and years before countries build factories and amass the materials and expertise to produce the vaccines, experts say.

“I genuinely think it’s pretty marginal,” said Rachel Silverman, a policy analyst with the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit think tank, who has warned that an intellectual property waiver raises complicated questions and won’t immediately boost supply to virus-ravaged countries such as India and Brazil. “I think it will not have disastrous effects. I don’t think it will do much to speed production.”

Still, Silverman praised President Biden’s willingness to take “bold and unprecedented action” to prioritize the global virus fight “above some of our more conventional foreign policy interests” and signal to developing countries that “we are not indifferent, that we are listening, and that we care about vaccinating them.”

Others suggested that the United States putting its muscle behind the proposal brings pressure on all players, including vaccine makers and other developed countries, to find other, more practical ways to speed vaccines to the developing world, especially amid the growing outcry over the gap between rich and poor countries. The desperation in India, where only 2.2 percent of the population is fully vaccinated as hospitals run out of oxygen, compared with almost 33 percent of the U.S. population being fully vaccinated, has underscored the issue.

The head of the World Trade Organization said Thursday that she would press member countries to reach an agreement on the waiver petition no later than December, setting Dec. 3 as the target for a final agreement. ...

ALSO SEE: Germany resists calls to waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines

AND: Analysis: U.S. move to loosen vaccine patents will draw drug companies to bargain _Reuters

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