President Joe Biden cannot say he is tough on China and then transfer advanced pharmaceutical patents to them.
Fairfax, Va. – U.S.- based corporations have developed the most effective vaccines against the Covid virus and are generously distributing them to other countries. But sharing the vaccine “formula” with other countries would pose a national security risk. Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in reaction to demands from other nations to access the intellectual property of America’s advanced biotech labs.
“Because the United States is the most generous country in the world, we are sharing our Covid vaccines with less developed countries. But sharing the intellectual property that underlies those vaccines poses a national security risk.
“Many countries are demanding the U.S. waive the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement that was made at the World Trade Organization in 1995 on pandemic-related products in order to get their hands on our advanced biotech knowledge that was critical to develop the vaccine in the first place.
“This national security concern is why the Trump administration explicitly rejected waiving TRIPS last year, and the Biden administration should do the same, as waiving would give sensitive national security-developed biotech to the rest of the world including China, which is in a race to build its own biotech arsenal.
“President Joe Biden cannot say he is tough on China and then transfer advanced pharmaceutical patents to them and other competitors to exploit and bury U.S. manufacturers. If Congress wants more vaccines distributed globally, it can choose to appropriate more money to do that, but the American people have every right to expect that we will get our doses first.
“Americans for Limited Government strongly urges President Biden to put national security and the interests of U.S. citizens first by refusing to waive the TRIPS agreement.”
For media availability contact Catherine Mortensen at 703-478-4643 or cmortensen@getliberty.org.