A Covid vaccine waiver? WTO has a plan for that.

The people and politics driving global health.

May 05, 2022 View in browser   By Andrew Green, Carmen Paun and Daniel Payne THE BIG IDEA WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has worked to facilitate a compromise on intellectual property waiver proposals. | AP PROPOSAL PUT TO THE TEST — World Trade Organization officials have circulated a draft proposal that would temporarily waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, paving the way for members to start discussing the plan. That will compel members, including the deal's brokers, to signal whether they'll support the divisive proposal. The deal, which emerged from talks among U.S., European, South African and Indian representatives, would temporarily ease patent restrictions on Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries that exported less than 10 percent of the world's coronavirus vaccine doses in 2021. The agreement was brokered to resolve an impasse over the IP waiver proposal tabled by South Africa and India in October 2020. But the compromise's narrow scope has outraged supporters of the original proposal, which also provided for access to trade secrets and extended the waiver to cover Covid-19 tests and treatments. The WTO is moving forward with closed-door discussions, despite concerns the compromise won't ultimately find unanimous support. The deal's collapse would essentially revert the WTO to its deadlock over the original plan, while fueling questions about the institution's ability to resolve IP disputes. Recognizing the stakes, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has helped facilitate the compromise. That may not be enough to convince some members to go along with it. More than 100 countries backed the original IP waiver, and there's the risk the compromise would leave them feeling betrayed. At the same time, a Geneva trade insider told POLITICO that the Swiss and British delegations, irked by their exclusion from the negotiations, might also continue to oppose any waiver. "This offer is trying to draw attention away from the original waiver proposal, which was quite comprehensive," said Yousuf Vawda, an IP expert at South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal. "No deal is better than a bad deal." Access advocates have found unlikely allies in the pharmaceutical industry. "It's a solution looking for a problem," Thomas Cueni, the director general of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, a pharma lobby group, told POLITICO. He said the main challenge is "getting the vaccines, which are in abundance, into the arms of people." The brokers of the agreement are not exactly rallying support for the deal. After the compromise was circulated, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative María Pagán issued a carefully worded statement that negotiators had sought to "facilitate discussions and bridge differences that might lead to an outcome on intellectual property that can achieve consensus." Though President Joe Biden came out in support of a vaccine-only IP waiver a year ago, his administration remains wary of provoking pharma backers in Congress. Pagán said the administration would continue to engage members of Congress and other stakeholders on the text. The South African and Indian delegations have remained silent, leaving Europe to stand alone in its public support of the agreement. "We believe that what we have on the table is the most promising outcome," a spokesperson from the European Commission told POLITICO. "We look forward to this happening with other quad members." Andrew Green is a freelance writer based in Berlin. WELCOME TO GLOBAL PULSE WELCOME BACK TO GLOBAL PULSE, where Carmen is excited to be back to work after four months of maternity leave. Tell her what she's missed at cpaun@politico.com. Global Pulse is a team effort. Thanks to editors Eli Reyes and Barbara Van Tine. Follow us on Twitter: @carmenpaun and @_daniel_payne.   INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED:  Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today.     BEYOND THE PANDEMIC RARE HEPATITIS CASES POP UP ALL OVER — On Wednesday, the WHO said five of its six regions have reported cases of severe hepatitis in children as of May 1. Later on Wednesday night, NBC News' Erika Edwards reported that doctors have treated at least six cases at Ohio's Cincinnati Children's Hospital. "There are now at least 228 probable cases reported from 20 countries," said Philippa Easterbrook, a senior scientist in the WHO's global hepatitis program, who noted that most countries are reporting less than five cases. One child has died, and 18 have received liver transplants, she said. The cause is still under investigation, but no link has been found to any one geographical area or exposure to certain foods, animals or toxins. It's also not related to Covid vaccines, as most of the children with the condition weren't vaccinated, Easterbrook said. "Everyone's aware of the possible link to adenovirus," she said. Most testing has been done in the U.K, and experts there are also looking at the detection rate of adenovirus in hospitalized children with the liver disease compared with other hospitalized kids. Easterbrook underlined that the disease is still rare and few children would develop liver failure or other complications. EBOLA VACCINATION CAMPAIGN IN LATEST DRC OUTBREAK — The Democratic Republic of the Congo confirmed a third case of Ebola in its latest outbreak in the Equateur province. The first two people confirmed positive have died. This is the sixth Ebola outbreak in the DRC since 2018, and it's a new spillover from animals, according to the WHO. WASHINGTON WATCH A STEP CLOSER TO PEPFAR — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted Wednesday to advance the nomination of John Nkengasong, currently director of the Africa CDC, to lead the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The nomination will move to the Senate floor for a final vote, though the vote's timing is uncertain. Biden nominated Nkengasong in September. He's set to become the first person of African origin to hold the job. DATA DIVE AROUND THE WORLD WHO ESTIMATES PANDEMIC DEATH TOLL — Almost 15 million people have died between January 2020 and December 2021 because of the pandemic, the WHO said today. That's nearly three times higher than the global number of deaths reported officially by early 2022. The WHO estimate includes the number of people who died due to the disease and those who died of other conditions for which they couldn't access prevention or treatment since the pandemic disrupted health systems. COVID, THE NEW FLU? — Many have compared the two respiratory viruses, we know. But this time it's the top bosses at the Food and Drug Administration saying it. Commissioner Robert Califf , top vaccine regulator Peter Marks and principal deputy commissioner Janet Woodcock wrote Monday in JAMA that getting vaccinated for Covid-19 will likely become a seasonal occurrence, just like the flu. The vaccines should target the circulating variants, they wrote. A decision on the composition of the Covid-19 vaccines to be used in the U.S. this fall should be made by June, they argued, to allow enough production time. "With the plan for implementation of this year's vaccine selection process, society is moving toward a new normal that may well include annual COVID-19 vaccination alongside seasonal influenza vaccination," the FDA officials wrote. This will likely be for people over 50 since giving a new vaccine dose to younger adults who have been inoculated and boosted once won't make a big difference in the number of hospitalizations and deaths. So what does this mean for the world? That efforts should be focused on people getting their initial vaccination course first, said Kate O'Brien, the WHO's vaccine boss. Vaccination rates for health care workers and people over 60, two of the top priority groups, are still under 50 percent in some regions of the world, she said. O'Brien also called for coordination in deciding on vaccine composition "rather than having a dispersed set of decisions that will create quite a chaotic landscape of availability of vaccines." A WHO committee is working on that. VACCINE DIPLOMACY AND THE UKRAINE WAR —  African countries haven't sided with the West in condemning Russia's war in Ukraine because rich countries didn't give them a fair shot at acquiring Covid-19 vaccines, according to Kathleen Van Brempt, a Belgian member of the European Parliament, who chairs a special Covid-19 committee. "The relationship between Europe and Africa isn't very good. We've disappointed them time and time again," she said, our Brussels colleague Carlo Martuscelli reported. GLOBAL PULSE NUMBER $1 BILLION The amount that should be invested yearly in a global pandemic-prevention team, Bill Gates writes in his latest book, How to Prevent the Next Pandemic. WHAT WE'RE CLICKING Financial Times: Africa's top Covid vaccine plant faces uncertain future after production halted POLITICO: WHO: Obesity in Europe at "epidemic proportions" Nature: Risky "gain-of-function" studies need stricter guidance, say U.S. researchers The New York Times: South Africa's latest surge is a possible preview of the pandemic's next chapter   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.       Follow us

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