June, 07 2021, 09:43am EDT
Increasingly Isolated, EU Struggles to Derail Global Momentum for Emergency COVID Waiver of WTO Intellectual Property Barriers, Submitting Papers in Defense of Big Pharma and Status Quo Rather Than Offering a New Proposal
On eve of June 8-9 trips council meeting, EU seeks to block U.S., Japan, China, and 100+ nations’ negotiations on waiver needed to deliver necessary manufacturing scale up of Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests.
WASHINGTON
Instead of unveiling alternative plans at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to boost production and availability of urgently-needed COVID-19 vaccine, treatments and tests production, the European Union revealed its intentions to block negotiations that the rest of the world supports to temporarily waive intellectual property (IP) barriers to end the pandemic and save lives.
The EU's latest move is the height of hypocrisy: EU officials say Covid vaccines should be a universal common good and no one is safe unless everyone is, yet act to prioritize Big Pharma demands and block the rest of the world from enacting a critical first step, the WTO IP waiver, to boost production and access.
The increasingly isolated EU not only is blocking a waiver that the vast majority of the world's countries deem necessary to save their people and end the pandemic. It is trying to distract and delay the rest of the world from moving forward. On Friday, the EU submitted two papers at the WTO that recycle debunked, stale Big Pharma defenses of WTO rules and claim that anything but expansive IP monopolies are causing the dire global shortage of COVID vaccines, treatments and tests. The EU "plan" is to urge current vaccine makers to produce more, an approach that already has failed spectacularly and now imperils the world.
As major economies with large pharmaceutical industries such as the United States, Japan and China and other developed nations like New Zealand have joined 100-plus developing nations supporting waiver talks, the increasingly isolated EU is expected to block waiver negotiations during the June 8-9 meeting of the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council.
While the vast majority of WTO members agree a temporarily waiver is necessary to remove intractable webs of patent, copyright, trade secret, industrial design and other IP barriers pharmaceutical firms have constructed to maintain monopoly control of COVID-19 vaccines and related medicines, the EU doubled down in opposition in May 2021 after German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed attacks from the pharmaceutical industry when the Biden-Harris administration announced U.S. support for a waiver.
The EU's latest WTO submissions closely hew to the Big Pharma talking points leaked last month. They include the colonialist insinuations that developing countries do not understand what is in their own interest and cannot act for themselves. They assume that the press and public do not understand that the supply chain "bottlenecks" that the EU claims are the issue are in no small part caused by IP barriers that limit production of COVID-19 vaccine inputs as well as finished vaccines not by "trade barriers," as the EU claims. As Human Rights Watch recently documented: "The TRIPS waiver proposal sponsors and experts at the leading science journal Nature, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Access Campaign, the Third World Network, and others have presented many other concrete examples of how enforcement of IP rules blocked, delayed, or limited production of chemical reagents for Covid-19 tests, ventilator valves, Covid-19 treatments, and elements of Covid-19 vaccines. IP constraints have not only led to vaccine shortages but have also led to shortages of key raw materials like bioreactor bags and filters."
They pretend that manufacturing shortfalls are not caused by IP barriers even as a few firms holding vaccine monopolies have refused to license technology to world class drug producers worldwide.
Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the EU paper reviews existing WTO TRIPS "flexibilities" and argues these are sufficient.
It's an absurd claim on its face. Countries worldwide support a waiver because the existing WTO "flexibilities" for HIV/AIDS treatments that were reaffirmed in the 2001 Doha Declaration after hard campaigning are obviously insufficient in the COVID-19 context. First, because COVID vaccines have complex global supply chains that rely on numerous inputs subject to patents, and other forms of IP monopoly that are cross-licensed and produced in multiple countries, the existing flexibilities that are focused on compulsory patent licensing are widely recognized to be unworkable for quickly boosting COVID-19 vaccine production.
Even leaving aside other IP restrictions, pharmaceutical firms have made sure that webs of patent claims underpin and restrict the marketing of many vaccines, as exposed in a recent Nature article that exposes the complex patent and licensing deals for mRNA vaccines and their underlying technologies. This intricated web of patents, licenses and sublicenses eviscerates the UE papers' claims that somehow existing compulsory licensing flexibilities suffice to ramp up production.
Second, technology has developed rapidly since 2001 and pharmaceutical firms have created IP "thickets," adding layers of additional copyright, industrial design and other exclusivities that extend beyond the patent barriers that were the focus of the 2001 flexibilities. Copyright protections on software, algorithms and training materials used to make the drugs and on storage and use guidelines, as well as undisclosed data protections covering some trade secrets, plus perhaps industrial design protections for key machinery used to mix lipids and genetic materials for mRNA vaccines are among the innumerable IP barriers thwarting production by non-originator firms. None of these IP barriers are addressed by the EU plan communication to supposedly boost production and availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
In order to manufacture a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine using compulsory licensing, the relevant producer would have to seek licenses for each IP-protected commodity in its country of origin and for export, which would require the compulsory licensing cooperation of the exporting country and input producer. It would likewise have to seek a compulsory license allowing for import of each such component and allowing for production of the vaccine. These multiple cases of component-by-component and country-by-country licenses result in timing and coordination complexities that are virtually insurmountable even if the existing WTO flexibilities were determined to cover all of the different forms of IP exclusivities involved. Even for medicines not subject to such complicated supply chains, successfully obtaining a compulsory license requires a time-consuming and administratively burdensome process.
The EU touting compulsory licensing as the way forward is even more cynical given decades of developing countries' attempts to use compulsory licensing being viciously attacked with trade threats and more by rich countries, including the EU and its member nations. In the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, pharmaceutical firms continue to pressure countries over the use of compulsory licensing. Gilead sued Russia for issuing a compulsory license on remdesivir. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce tried to recruit the U.S. government to threaten countries that have used or planned to use compulsory licenses to incentivize domestic manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
The EU communications does not address any solution to overcome these problems. In contrast, a TRIPS waiver would simply clear the thorny IP thickets, the related investment-chilling liabilities and threats of trade sanctions.
The EU papers were only novel in the seeming ignorance that what is labeled as reforms in fact are terms that have been in place since the 2001 WTO Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public health:
* The EU purports that the use of the compulsory licensing system can be eased by formal clarification that COVID qualifies as a national emergency so countries are not subject to requirements to negotiate with patent holders when issuing compulsory licenses. Beyond the absurdity that the WTO must clarify that COVID has caused national emergencies, under existing WTO rules countries self-declare emergencies, and emergencies are not the only basis for waiving the negotiate-first rule. Public non-commercial use is also included, like when governments provide vaccines to their populations.
* The EU purports to clarify that WTO Members can set patent holder remuneration under a compulsory license at the price charged by the manufacturer of the vaccine or therapeutic. Yet the TRIPS Agreement already makes that clear. And, the problem with compulsory licensing of COVID vaccines is not related to compensation, but that compulsory licensing is not a workable solution in this context.
* The EU papers restate as a new reform another existing TRIPS rule: That when countries export medicines made under a compulsory licensing to countries with no or insufficient pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, the exporting country can provide a single notification that lists all the importing countries to which vaccines or therapeutics would be supplied. Yup, that's been the case for many years...
Given the EU is increasing alone against the world in service of Pharma, the latest EU WTO papers that restate existing WTO rules as if they are innovations and recycle old Big Pharma claims that have been so thoroughly debunked are surprisingly lame.
Instead of obstructing the world's progress towards the massive increase in COVID vaccines and medicines needed to save lives and end the COVID pandemic, the EU should just say nein to Germany's deadly, self-defeating position and join the community of nations in favor of the WTO TRIPS waiver.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Trustee Reports Show Medicare, Social Security Must Be Defended From Trump
"The future of these earned benefit programs depends on who is elected this fall—both as president and to Congress," said one campaigner.
May 06, 2024
Advocacy groups, congressional Democrats, and U.S. President Joe Biden's reelection campaign on Monday pointed to new government reports on Medicare and Social Security as proof that the key programs must be protected from Republican attacks.
The annual trustee reports show that Social Security is projected to be fully funded until 2035, a year later than previously thought, while Medicare is expected to be fully funded until 2036, five years beyond the earlier projection.
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to face Biden in November, "proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare every year he was in office, he's said repeatedly he would cut them, his allies openly plan to target them, and just this weekend he dismissed them as bribes," noted James Singer, a spokesperson for the Democrat's campaign.
"Let's be clear, Donald Trump will steal the hard-earned Social Security and Medicare benefits Americans have been paying into their entire lives and he'll use it to fund tax cuts for rich people like him," Singer warned. "President Biden keeps his promises. He has and will continue to protect Social Security and Medicare from MAGA Republican efforts to cut them—Donald Trump won't."
"No doubt we will hear cries from so-called 'fiscal conservatives' that Social Security is going 'bankrupt,' supposedly requiring Draconian measures—which couldn't be further than the truth."
Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said Monday that "current and future American retirees should feel confident about both Medicare and Social Security, which [are] stronger due to the robust economy under President Biden. But the future of these earned benefit programs depends on who is elected this fall—both as president and to Congress."
Fiesta highlighted that Biden's latest budget "calls for strengthening" the programs whereas Trump recently said that "there is a lot you can do... in terms of cutting" them and "the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which includes around 80% of House Republicans, stands ready to make cuts as well."
Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, similarly declared that "today's report shows that our Social Security system is benefiting from the Biden economy. Due to robust job growth, low unemployment, and rising wages, more people than ever are contributing to Social Security and earning its needed protections."
"That said, Congress should take action sooner rather than later to ensure that Social Security can pay full benefits for generations to come, along with expanding Social Security's modest benefits," she argued, noting various plans from Democrats in Congress that "are paid for by requiring millionaires and billionaires to contribute more of their fair share."
Unlike Democratic leaders in Washington, D.C., "Republicans want to cut benefits despite overwhelming opposition from the American people," Altman said of federal lawmakers and the former president. Additionally, "Trump plans to sharply restrict immigration. This would harm Social Security by reducing the number of workers paying in."
"The United States is the wealthiest nation on Earth at the wealthiest moment in our history. We can use that wealth to protect and expand Social Security, or to provide yet more tax handouts to billionaires," she concluded. "This report is a reminder that the next decade is a crucial one for Social Security's future. Americans should vote accordingly this November."
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare, also asserted that "Congress must act NOW to strengthen Social Security for the 67 million Americans who depend on it. We cannot afford to wait to take action until the trust fund is mere months from insolvency, as Congress did in 1983."
According to Richtman:
No doubt we will hear cries from so-called 'fiscal conservatives' that Social Security is going 'bankrupt,' supposedly requiring Draconian measures—which couldn't be further than the truth. Revenue always will flow into Social Security from workers' payroll contributions, so the program will never be 'broke.' But no one wants seniors to suffer an automatic 17% benefit cut in 2035, so Congress must act deliberately, but not recklessly. A bad deal driven by cuts to earned benefits could be worse than no deal at all.
We strongly support revenue-side solutions that would bring more money into the trust fund by demanding that the wealthy pay their fair share. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) has offered legislation that would do just that—by maintaining the current payroll wage cap (currently set at $168,600), but subjecting wages $400,000 and above to payroll taxes, as well—and dedicating some of high earners' investment income to Social Security. Rep. Larson's bill also would provide seniors with a much-needed benefit boost.
Larson was among the lawmakers who responded to Monday's Social Security report by demanding urgent action. The Democrat also called out his Republican colleagues for pushing cuts and trying to "ram their dangerous plan through an undemocratic and unaccountable so-called 'fiscal commission,'" which critics have dubbed a "death panel."
"The Social Security 2100 Act is co-sponsored by nearly 200 House Democrats and would improve benefits across the board while extending solvency until 2066, while Donald Trump and House Republicans continue their calls to slash Americans' hard-earned benefits!" Larson said. "By contrast, President Joe Biden and Democrats are working to strengthen Social Security, not cut it."
Co-sponsors of Larson's bill include Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee.
"Social Security is the greatest anti-poverty program in history, and ensuring its solvency for future generations has been one of my top priorities in Congress," Boyle said Monday, promoting the Medicare and Social Security Fair Share Act, his bill with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). "Unfortunately, while Democrats and President Biden want to protect Social Security and Medicare, Republicans have made clear they want to tear them down."
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'War Criminals': IDF Strikes Rafah After Hamas Agrees to Cease-Fire
"Why?" asked Israeli lawmaker Ofer Cassif. "Because killing Palestinians is more important for the Israeli government than saving Israelis."
May 06, 2024
Israel on Monday launched long-awaited strikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip despite Hamas publicly confirming it agreed to a cease-fire and hostage release proposal from Egyptian and Qatari mediators.
The Israel Defense Forces said on social media that "the IDF is currently conducting targeted strikes against Hamas terror targets in eastern Rafah," the city to which over a million Palestinians have fled since October 7, when Israel launched a retaliatory war that has already killed at least 34,735 people in Gaza and wounded another 78,108.
Earlier Monday, the IDF had dropped leaflets directing residents and refugees in that part of Rafah to relocate to a strip along Gaza's coast, ignoring warnings from the international community and humanitarian groups that a full-scale Israeli attack on the crowded city would further endanger civilians and relief efforts.
"It is obvious Netanyahu wants this genocidal war to continue indefinitely so that he can remain in power."
In addition to sparking outrage around the world, the Israeli government's Rafah attack and rejection of the Hamas-backed proposal was met with criticism from people across Israel. The Associated Pressreported that "thousands of Israelis rallied around the country Monday night calling for an immediate deal to release the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip."
Ofer Cassif, a member of the Knesset who was almost expelled by fellow Israeli lawmakers earlier this year for backing South Africa's ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), again called out his own government.
"Israeli tanks and infantry enter east Rafah while planes bomb from above, just hours after Hamas' decision to accept the hostages/prisoners exchange deal," Cassif said Monday. "Why? Because killing Palestinians is more important for the Israeli government than saving Israelis. War criminals!"
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that "the War Cabinet unanimously decided this evening Israel will continue its operation in Rafah, in order to apply military pressure on Hamas so as to advance the release of our hostages and achieve the other objectives of the war."
Along with the prime minister, Israel's War Cabinet includes Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, former IDF chief of the general staff, along with three observers.
Netanyahu added that "while the Hamas proposal is far from meeting Israel's core demands, Israel will dispatch a ranking delegation to Egypt in an effort to maximize the possibility of reaching an agreement on terms acceptable to Israel."
Reutersreported that "an Israeli official said the deal was not acceptable to Israel because terms had been 'softened.'"
According to the news outlet, the first part of a three-phase plan that Hamas—which has controlled Gaza for nearly two decades—agreed to includes a 42-day pause in fighting, the release of 33 hostages held by the group and some Palestinians in Israeli jails, a partial IDF withdrawal, and free movement in the besieged enclave.
Phase two would be "another 42-day period that features an agreement to restore a 'sustainable calm' to Gaza, language that an official briefed on the talks said Hamas and Israel had agreed in order to take discussion of a 'permanent cease-fire' off the table," Reuters detailed. This phase also includes withdrawing most Israeli troops and Hamas releasing some soldiers and reservists.
The third phase would involve the exchange of bodies; reconstruction of Gaza overseen by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations; and ending the complete blockade on the strip, the outlet added.
Shortly before Israel's Monday night strikes on Rafah began, Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, said that the U.N. chief "reiterates his pressing call to both the government of Israel and the leadership of Hamas to go the extra mile needed to make an agreement come true and stop the present suffering."
Expressing concern about the then-imminent Israeli operation in Rafah, the spokesperson said that "we are already seeing movements of people—many of these people are in desperate humanitarian condition and have been repeatedly displaced. They search safety that has been so many times denied. The secretary-general reminds the parties that the protection of civilians is paramount in international humanitarian law."
Other U.N. officials have been warning of what an assault on Rafah will mean for the over 1.4 million Palestinians there, among them 600,000 children. So have humanitarian and political leaders, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who on Monday urged President Joe Biden to stand by his earlier position that attacking the city was a "red line" and "end all offensive military aid to Israel."
Council on American-Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad issued a similar call Monday evening, warning that "the Israeli government is hellbent on using American financial, military, and diplomatic support to ethnically cleanse what remains of Gaza and commit another massacre."
"President Biden must stand up to Benjamin Netanyahu and take concrete action to end the genocide now," Awad continued, nodding to the Israeli leader's legal trouble. The prime minister faces not only potential consequences on a global scale for what the ICJ has deemed a "plausibly" genocidal war on Gaza but also a corruption trial in his own country.
"It is obvious Netanyahu wants this genocidal war to continue indefinitely so that he can remain in power, avoid jail, and fulfill his racist, far-right Cabinet's demands for the complete destruction of Gaza and the massacre of its people," Awad said. "It is long past time for President Biden to end our nation's complicity in this 21st-century genocide."
Biden spoke with Netanyahu by phone ahead of the IDF strikes on Monday and "reiterated his clear position on Rafah," according to a White House readout. They also discussed the hostage negotiations, humanitarian aid, the Holocaust, and antisemitism.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, also suggested that the Israeli prime minister wants the bloodshed in Gaza to continue for personal reasons.
"Netanyahu does not want an end to the war because the moment the war ends, his political career ends as well. And his prison sentence will commence," said Parsi. "Yet, Biden has for seven months deferred to Netanyahu."
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Pulitzer Snubs Palestinian Journalists' Gaza Coverage
The Pulitzer Prize Board avoided "naming the brave Palestinian journalists who did the reporting and filming and died in record numbers," said one journalist.
May 06, 2024
In recent years, the Pulitzer Prize Board has given special recognition to the journalists of Ukraine and Afghanistan for reporting from war zones, honoring their "courage, endurance, and commitment to truthful reporting" and their ability to tell their communities' stories under "profoundly tragic and complicated circumstances."
On Monday, no such recognition was given to Palestinian reporters in Gaza, at least 92 of whom have been among more than 34,000 Palestinians killed in the enclave since Israel began its bombardment in October.
The annual journalism and literature awards included a special citation for "journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza"—but didn't differentiate between those around the world who have spent the last seven months telling the story of Israel's escalation from the safety of far-off countries, and those struggling to report on the destruction of their own home under the constant threat of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks.
"The missing word is—is always—Palestinian," said Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG). "Palestinian journalists and media workers deserve, if nothing else, this recognition; and half of them are dead."
Public health writer Abdullah Shihipar noted that in 2022, the board awarded the special citation to the "journalists of Ukraine." In 2021, it recognized "women and men of Afghanistan," saying that from "staff and freelance correspondents to interpreters to drivers to hosts, courageous Afghan residents helped produce Pulitzer-winning and Pulitzer-worthy images and stories."
This year, said Intercept journalist Jeremy Scahill, giving a special citation to "'media workers covering the war in Gaza' is a way to avoid naming the brave Palestinian journalists who did the reporting and filming and died in record numbers."
Many of those killed, Scahill added, might not have been had it not been for U.S.-made weapons sold to Israel.
The Pulitzer Prize for international reporting was awarded to The New York Times "for its wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas' lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel's intelligence failures, and the Israeli military's sweeping, deadly response in Gaza."
One of the Times' most explosive articles about Israel and Gaza, "Screams Without Words," about the alleged sexual assaults of Israeli victims of the October 7 attack, was not among those submitted for consideration. The article has come under scrutiny because of the anti-Palestinian bias expressed by one of the freelance reporters who worked on it, and questions about its veracity.
WAWOG, which has started a website titledThe New York War Crimes, posted on social media that the Times should have instead been awarded the Pulitzer for "manufacturing consent."
By honoring the Times for its international reporting this year, said City University of New York sociology professor Heba Gowayed, the Pulitzer Prize "lost any credibility it ever had."
The prize is administered by Columbia University, where students have been protesting for weeks against U.S. support for the IDF and against the school's investment in companies that contract with Israel.
Last week, the university called on the New York Police Department to forcibly remove student protesters from a school building; police told student journalists they would be arrested if they left Pulitzer Hall to report on the incident. Student journalists are reportedly still being barred from campus.
Columbia, said Jack Mirkinson of The Nation, announced the Pulitzers "at the exact same time it is clamping down on the press freedom of its own students. You couldn't make it up."
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