US favours freer flow of vaccine components

Paris, May 7: The new US position in support of lifting patents on

Covid-19 vaccines has taken attention away from an equally significant change by Washington, which plans to open up trade in the raw materials used to make them.

After having recently taken heat for blocking such exports, Commerce Secretary Katherine Tai said Wednesday that the US government would “work to increase the raw materials needed to produce those vaccines”.

The assertion was hidden at the bottom of the statement unveiling Washington’s remarkable reversal of its position on

Covid-19 vaccine patents, which coincides with a shortage of doses in emerging and developing nations as cases surge in some countries.

Long legal and economic policy debates likely lie ahead about waiving vaccine patents, particularly at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Meanwhile, the difficulties faced by some laboratories in obtaining components to manufacture vaccines look set to stymie the drive to ramp up production.

Two labs have recently spoken out about their difficulties, laying the blame at Washington’s door.

Germany’s Curevac said it could not secure supplies of certain materials from the United States.

Several days earlier, India’s Serum Institute, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, called on U.S. President Joe Biden to step in.

“Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the US, I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the US so that vaccine production can ramp up,” the company’s

THE ASSERTION was hidden at the bottom of the statement unveiling Washington’s remarkable reversal of its position on Covid-19 vaccine patents, which coincides with a shortage of doses in emerging and developing nations as cases surge in some countries.

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Twitter.

There is no actual embargo on exporting vaccine components. Instead, Biden, like his predecessor Donald Trump, invoked the Defense Production Act — which normally concerns wartime — to confront the pandemic.

While it does not explicitly ban exports, it puts the US government first in line to buy certain products made in the country.

US officials have previously played down the possible effect of the law on global vaccine production.

“There’s just more global manufacturing happening everywhere in the world than suppliers can currently support,” a US official told a White House briefing late last month on condition of anonymity.

Over the past two months, a number of public and private actors have noted the shrinking supply of components needed to manufacture vaccines.

At least 50 components, perhaps as many as 100, go into the jabs.

They include items like the glass vials to ship them, as well as certain types of plastics needed for containers used in the manufacturing process.

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Adar wrote on