The Biden administration should not support a WTO petition to strip IP protections from Covid-19 treatments

The Biden administration may soon double down on one of its gravest mistakes.

In 2022, it supported a petition before the World Trade Organization to gut intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines. Now, with the WTO planning to take up the issue again in late February, the administration must decide whether to support a similar proposal that would strip protections from Covid-19 treatments and diagnostics as well.

If officials ultimately endorse this proposal, it could seriously jeopardize America’s economy and national security.

Proponents claim that intellectual property waivers are necessary to expand access to shots, therapeutics, and diagnostics in the developing world. But there’s no evidence to support these claims.

Members of the WTO greenlit the original vaccine waiver with the intent of boosting vaccination rates in low- and middle-income nations. But developing countries didn’t find that useful — because intellectual property protections were never a significant barrier to access in the first place. Indeed, the former CEO of Gavi, an international vaccine alliance, said in March that the TRIPS waiver “did nothing” to bring vaccines to patients.

Developing countries actually had a surplus of vaccines prior to the waiver’s adoption. In 2022, Gavi even phased out vaccine deliveries to 37 countries due to lack of demand. And COVAX, a multiorganization initiative for vaccine access, ceased operations at the end of last year.

In nations that did experience localized shortages of the shots, the problems were driven by barriers like lack of adequate transportation and fragmented health care infrastructure. Many countries even lack the necessary cold storage to keep vaccines at appropriate temperatures.

Those same barriers are preventing some developing nations from efficiently distributing Covid-19 tests and treatments. Stripping patent protections on these groundbreaking medical advancements won’t save lives in countries that lack basic health care infrastructure. It will, however, strike a devastating blow to America’s biotech sector — and open a door for adversaries like China and competitors like India to strengthen their global economic fortunes at our expense.

America’s economy depends on a strong biopharmaceutical industry at home. The U.S. biopharma sector directly employs more than 800,000 workers and supports a total 4.7 million jobs.

Our status as the world’s leader in life sciences innovation is no accident. We owe it to strong and reliable IP protections, which reward those who develop and invest in lifesaving treatments. On average, it costs upwards of $3 billion to bring a single drug to market once one accounts for the inevitable failures along the way.

While federal funds can help kickstart research, drug development relies on substantial investments from the private sector. A recent review of 18 FDA-approved therapies found $670 million in funding from the NIH but $44 billion from the private sector.

If companies and investors don’t have a period of exclusivity to recoup the enormous expense of bringing a new product to market, they’ll cut back on R&D — or set up shop elsewhere, which means shipping jobs overseas. Either way, we’ll employ fewer workers and see fewer medical breakthroughs.

Kneecapping patent protections on American-made medicines would also grant other countries access to America’s proprietary biotechnology, enabling China to develop copycat inventions. Beijing already pilfers much of that information illegally, costing the U.S. economy up to a staggering $600 billion each year.

In fact, according to a recent study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, China already outperforms the United States in 37 of 44 “crucial technology” fields. The ongoing epidemic of IP theft is one major reason why. We’d be fools to voluntarily hand our greatest geopolitical rival even more of our innovative technology.

The United States can do plenty to help developing countries strengthen their health care infrastructure and expand access to Covid-19 treatments. For instance, global policymakers can tackle cold storage and transportation logistics in these countries — and work to eliminate export restrictions and tariffs on treatments.

But achieving that goal doesn’t necessitate sacrificing our vital economic and geopolitical interests.

David Kappos served as the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office from 2009 to 2013 under President Obama. Andrei Iancu served as the undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office from 2018 to 2021 under President Trump. Both serve as board co-chairs of the Council for Innovation Promotion.