Will Biden Dare To Use March-In Rights?

Health advocates are asking Washington to use laws that allow patent override on drugs developed with public funds

- Latha Jishnu

THE PUBLIC campaign against patent policies in the US is important for the rest of the world, because it is the Washington model that has set global standards for the stifling monopoly rights enjoyed by innovator drug companies. So when a group of leading public organisations recently asked the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to use his executive power to override patent rights on six important therapies, it signals the growing pressure on the US administration to curtail monopoly patent rights on the drugs it helps to develop; either through research collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or public funding. Such a measure would widen access to life-saving medicines and reduce their prices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted health activists to pursue such a strategy, spurred by the dispute between NIH and Moderna Inc over patent rights to the biotech company's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna's vaccine was developed in collaboration with scientists of NIH who had earlier done the vital groundwork on mRNA technology, the reason why the vaccine could be developed in a short time. Yet, Moderna excluded key NIH scientists when it filed patent claims on the vaccine (see 'Bizarre patent tussles over a COVID-19 jab', Down To Earth 1-15 March, 2022) allowing it to rake in huge profits. Who really owns the intellectual property rights (IPRS) on the vaccine is a vital question in these pandemic times. If NIH insists on its innovator rights, that means the public organisation can license the technology to companies of its choice, in addition to receiving a share of the US $18 billion profits that Moderna is forecast to earn this year.