President Biden recently made what the Wall Street Journal referred to as the worst single Presidential decision since Nixon’s wage and price Controls. Biden, in a move that he is selling as compassion for poor countries that do not have access to vaccines, agreed to support a waiver of Intellectual Property Rights of U.S. companies.
The decision to issue such a waiver is a dangerous one. It takes away the I.P. rights of U.S. (and other) companies and will diminish future incentives for groundbreaking medical research, as well as research in other industries.
The administration made this move despite the fact that intellectual property is the only right explicitly laid out in the Constitution. Despite the fact that our pharmaceutical companies have said that they would do whatever they could to supply these countries with vaccines. Despite the fact that the countries in question don’t have the capabilities or the manpower to manufacture the vaccines. And, despite the fact that such a waiver will do little to help nations get access to the vaccine in time. Simply giving out the “recipe” for vaccine does little to overcome the logistical hurdles for nations to ramp up their own vaccines. Many experts admitted that waiving the patent rights by itself will have little short-term impact and said the impact would be “marginal” at best.
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