Suspension of Intellectual Property Rights on COVID-19 Vaccines Is a Humanitarian Necessity
Capetown, South Africa, March 11, 2021
The governments of South Africa, India and
others have asked the leading imperialist
countries to suspend temporarily Intellectual
Property (IP) rights on COVID-19 vaccines as a
humanitarian necessity. They say their countries
have the productive capacity to significantly
increase supply. Their scientists and producers
have the knowhow and capacity to produce the mRNA
vaccine but to do so they need an IP waiver of the
patent rights held by private cartels
headquartered in the U.S. and Europe.
 As it stands, the
Big Pharma cartels oppose any relaxation of their
IP patent rights. They are already reaping
billions in profits and stand to expropriate much
more as their own production continues and sales
expand around the world. For those sales to reach
the developing world, rather than have immediate
production outside their control the Big Pharma
cartels want global governments to provide funds
through vaccine pharmacare for the purchase of the
vaccines they produce. This would allow them to
reap profits beyond the wildest dreams they had
before the pandemic.
Governments' purchase of vaccines from the
private cartels for free distribution has led to
what many call "obscene profits" and charges from
others that the leading imperialist states are
guilty of mass murder for blocking expansion of
production and delivery of vaccines worldwide.
The leading imperialist countries have already
ordered more vaccines than they need, which has
effectively cornered the current supply, denying
vaccines for the rest of the world. The Trudeau
government in practice supports the obstruction of
production so that the Big Pharma cartels can reap
even more billions from the sale of their own
vaccines through an expanded global vaccine
pharmacare program.
Regarding the current situation of COVID-19
variants ravaging the poorer countries, IP rights
expert Achal Prabhala, in The Dig podcast,
said
that waiting for the private cartels to produce
and sell the vaccines under the Access to COVID-19
Tools Accelerator (ACT) and COVAX Facility would
delay any substantial vaccine distribution in
poorer countries until 2023. Such a delay will
result in millions of deaths and other horrific
losses and damage, in part because other measures
to curb the spread of the infection and treat
those suffering from the virus are not possible
because of the dreadful existing social
conditions.
Prabhala reports that the U.S. government and
others in Europe gave the private cartels
including Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca
"billions of dollars -- billions -- in
no-strings-attached grants to do the [vaccine]
research, meaning no risk to the companies if they
failed. Then they paid the companies billions of
dollars -- billions -- in pre-orders so the
companies were guaranteed buyers even before
coming into the market. Now, they enjoy global
monopoly -- largely funded by taxpayer labour."
In effect, IP rights are rights to make obscene
private wealth using pay-the-rich schemes,
government regulations and laws, instituted
throughout the imperialist system of states to
serve the global oligarchy. In opposition, the
people through their own efforts and organizing
must bring the entire health care sector under
their control and ensure it serves the people and
society and not the narrow private interests of
the oligarchs.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 6 - June 6, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M510062.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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