Sergeant Jennifer Callender (L) of the Illinois Air National Guard administers a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Virginia Persha at a vaccination middle established on the Triton College in River Grove, Illinois, on February 3, 2021.
Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP | Getty Images
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla warned Friday that waiving patent protections for Covid vaccines — a proposal President Joe Biden simply endorsed — would set off a worldwide race for uncooked supplies that threatens the protected and environment friendly manufacturing of Covid pictures.
The Biden administration mentioned Wednesday it helps the restricted waiver of mental property guidelines in service of increasing vaccine distribution to the lower-income nations at the moment being battered by the pandemic.
But Bourla, whose firm produces one in all three vaccines permitted for emergency use within the U.S., mentioned that he believes “categorically” that the waiver proposal will “create more problems.”
“Currently, infrastructure is not the bottleneck for us manufacturing faster,” Bourla wrote in a pricey colleague letter posted on LinkedIn. “The restriction is the scarcity of highly specialized raw materials needed to produce our vaccine.”
Pfizer’s vaccine requires 280 completely different supplies and elements which are sourced from 19 international locations world wide, Bourla mentioned. He contended that with out patent protections, entities with a lot much less skilled than Pfizer at manufacturing vaccines will begin competing for a similar substances.
“Right now, virtually every single gram of raw material produced is shipped immediately into our manufacturing facilities and is converted immediately and reliably to vaccines that are shipped immediately around the world,” Bourla wrote.
He predicted that the proposed waiver “threatens to disrupt the flow of raw materials.”
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla addresses a press convention after a go to to supervise the manufacturing of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine on the manufacturing unit of U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer in Puurs, Belgium April 23, 2021.
John Thys | Pool | Reuters
“It will unleash a scramble for the critical inputs we require in order to make a safe and effective vaccine,” Bourla wrote.
“Entities with little or no experience in manufacturing vaccines are likely to chase the very raw materials we require to scale our production, putting the safety and security of all at risk,” the CEO wrote.
The White House referred CNBC’s outreach on Bourla’s publish to the Office of U.S. Trade Representative, which didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
World Trade Organization leaders have not too long ago urged member nations to come back to an settlement on the potential vaccine patent waivers. But even with the U.S. backing, a deal is hardly assured, for the reason that WTO’s rulings are based mostly on consensus, requiring approval from all 164 members.
Germany, a WTO member and the most important economic system in Europe, got here out towards the waiver proposal on Thursday. BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer in creating the vaccine, relies in Germany.
Bourla on LinkedIn additionally expressed concern that the doable vaccine waivers “will disincentivize anyone else from taking a big risk.”
“The recent rhetoric will not discourage us from continuing investing in science. But I am not sure if the same is true for the thousands of small biotech innovators that are totally dependent on accessing capital from investors who invest only on the premise that their intellectual property will be protected,” the CEO wrote.
PhRMA, the pharmaceutical business curiosity teams whose member firms embody Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, one other U.S. vaccine supplier, referred to as the waiver proposal “an unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and compromise safety.”
Meanwhile, CEO Stephane Bancel of Moderna, maker of the opposite U.S.-approved Covid shot, mentioned he wasn’t involved concerning the doable waivers.
