The Government is facing Growing Pressure to Force Big Pharma

As the Government around the world race to combat the fast-spreading Delta variant, President Biden is facing growing calls to use his legal authority to force pharmaceutical giants to share their vaccine recipes. It is with a proposed patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines still mired in fruitless talks at the World Trade Organization.

The patent for key spike-protein technology created by the National Institutes of Health is presently held by the US Government. At least five companies, including Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, have used that technique to assist trigger an immune response against the coronavirus in the development of vaccines.

Despite being asked to do so by the NIH scientist who helped develop the spike-protein technology. The Biden administration has so far declined to use the Government ownership of the so-called ‘070 patent to force Big Pharma to share its vaccine formulae with producers all around the world. However, with the ultra-contagious Delta variety ravaging under-vaccinated parts of the globe, public health activists are putting more on Biden to act, while pharmaceutical companies refuse to participate in voluntary technology-sharing measures.Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, said, “The U.S. Government has power to share vaccine manufacturing knowledge and help other countries scale up production and finally end this pandemic. Millions of people have lost their lives waiting for such desperately needed action.”

Maybarduk is encouraged by recent comments from Gayle Smith, the chief of the US State Department’s global Covid-19 response. Smith asked US vaccine makers to assist build low-cost production hubs overseas and share their technological expertise in an interview with the Financial Times earlier this week. Maybarduk, on the other hand, made it apparent that, given the Biden administration’s legal capacity to compel their involvement.