TRIPs & South Africa
12m | Apr 19, 2022“Stop TRIPs”
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Narrator: While upper-income countries are handing out COVID-19 booster shots, South Africa is still trying to get vaccination rates that are similar to the majority of the world. Why is this the case during a Global Pandemic that the world has been in, for over 2 years?
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Narrator- The COVID Vaccines, to which South Africa has not had equitable access, is protected under TRIPs.
Narrator: TRIPS stands for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights. So what is Intellectual Property and what is Intellectual Property Rights? And How does it relate to South Africa’s access to the vaccine?
~Small Chime~
Narrator: Garland Grangercan give us some perspective. He is a former CPA, has a Masters in Business Administration, and is the current Accounting professor at Guilford College. He will be explaining what Intellectual Property is, as well as what Intellectual Property Rights are.
Garland Granger: If I buy a car, I buy furniture, whatever I buy in a business, I want to protect it from being stolen, you know, so I put in the controls necessary to protect my car, I lock it, I lock my house, I do all the things necessary to protect something that's physical. But how do you protect an idea? How do you protect something that your brain created is the ability to protect what you create in your mind is the ability to protect what you create in your own mind, that's intangible, you can't see it per say as a thought. But it's because of your creativity. And it should be protected. So people couldn't take it and say, Well, I came up with that idea. And that was the whole idea of what individual property rights are and why we felt it necessary to protect those rights in the United States.
Narrator: So what is a Patent and how do you get one?
Garland Granger: Okay, so a patent is I came up with an idea of how to make a product. And I want to protect that so nobody else can steal that. So I apply to the US Patent Office, and I have to get an attorney in some legal fees and application fees. And they do the research to make sure I'm not infringing on somebody else's patent, because they've got all the patents there. So they can check it out. And if they issue me a patent, and what that means is, no one else can make that product the way I created it.
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Narrator: In order to get out of this pandemic we need global herd immunity. Herd immunity can only happen if enough people have protective antibodies against infection. These protective antibodies are in the vaccine. South Africa needs access to the patented vaccine, as well as other lower-income countries, in order to reach that herd immunity.
Fatima Hassan can speak on how TRIPS has affected South Africa’s access.
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Narrator: During a roundtable discussion with health experts and activists, Fatima Hassan, the founder and director of Health Justice Initiative based in South Africa and a health/human rights lawyer explains South Africa’s COVID vaccination situation.
Narrator: G Brindle a theatre Minor from Guilford College will be voice acting for Fatima.
I will be voice acting as: Els Torreel and Joseph J. Amon.
Els Torreel & Joseph J. Amon (Narrator voice acting): How unprecedented is the current situation? Compared to other challenges, for example, HIV drugs, and expensive cancer therapies, what makes COVID-19 vaccine access inequities different?
Fatima (G Brindle voice acting): Let me make the point more specific, in South Africa, we are now witnessing, firsthand, vaccine apartheid. Colleagues my age in the Global North are getting vaccinated, but in South Africa, health care workers, the elderly, vulnerable workers, and others at high risk are still waiting for vaccine supplies. This is apartheid––wealth, geography, and patents matter more than people’s lives.
~Small Chime~
Els Torreel & Joseph J. Amon (Narrator voice acting): The nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the political context in which it is taking place is quite different from earlier access challenges. How can we find solutions to the vast inequalities that exist in terms of access to vaccines and other technologies?
Fatima (G Brindle voice acting): At the end of March 2021, South Africa––the African country most affected by COVID-19––was still waiting for its first delivery through COVAX. We ended up obtaining a clinical trial supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that allowed the vaccination of 250,000 health care workers. At the end of March, we were waiting for supplies to arrive through bilateral deals and through the African Union, all of which are highly secretive, non-transparent, and not being disclosed to the public. This is shameful.
~Small Drum Chime~
Els Torreel & Joseph J. Amon (Narrator voice acting): You have all painted a pretty bleak picture of the current state of affairs concerning the world’s response to the pandemic, in particular around access to vaccines, and the failure of global institutions to foster equity and fairness in the face of nationalism, greed, the breakdown of solidarity. Are there reasons to be optimistic moving forward?
Fatima (G Brindle voice acting): Despite being extremely disheartened by the conduct and lack of transparency of some governments and vaccine manufacturers, I am encouraged by the accelerated vaccine research being done by public health scientists and researchers, the advocacy for access globally, and the solidarity among older and newer activists with the science and public health community and worker associations.
I am also inspired by the battle being waged at the WTO to once and for all show the world why treating medicines as a commodity is not normal and fuels inequality in access to lifesaving interventions.
~Small Chime~
Narrator: Through Fatima’s testimony, we can see that South Africa is not getting access to the life-saving vaccine compared to countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, Switzerland, and other higher-income countries that have had easy access. Let’s focus on when Fatima says that she is inspired by the…
Fatima (G Brindle voice acting): “Battle Being Waged at the WTO”
Narrator: The battle she is referring to is South Africa’s fight for a COVID vaccine patent waiver also called the TRIPS waiver. This waiver would allow other countries to have access to the “recipe” of the vaccine.
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Narrator: Moderna pledged to not enforce its patents. That is unhelpful to this issue. When using this metaphor of a “recipe” to make a vaccine. This “recipe” has many steps and components that do not come from the same aisle at your local grocery store. Moderna includes other companies’ patented processes and equipment that is needed in the process to metaphorically “cook or bake” a vaccine.
Narrator: So, when Moderna has access to outside patents but then says “Hey we will not enforce our own patents”. That doesn’t really do anything. That does not give full access to others like South Africa.
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Narrator: The issue with this is only a limited number of manufacturers have access to the intellectual property or “recipe” because of patents. And that a limited number of manufacturers can not produce enough vaccines for everyone in the world.
So demand is high. And supply is low. Making the price of the vaccine go up.
Allowing the path of higher-income countries to be able to buy and hoard as many doses as they please. Without regulations or specific incentives that require those higher-income countries to share with countries like South Africa.
~Small Chime~
Narrator: The TRIPS waiver would allow South Africa as well as other lower-income countries to manufacture and distribute its vaccines with the same or some of the recipes.
Making each dose cheaper for everyone as well as accessible. We will not reach Herd Immunity without Global Access to the vaccine.
~Music (Guitar)~
Narrator: Higher-income countries have helped, somewhat, by donating doses and funds to organizations like COVAX. COVAX is a global organization in charge of distributing donated vaccines from public and private sectors to lower-income countries, like south africa, in hopes of equitable access to the vaccine.
Fatima speaks on this.
Fatima (G Brindle voice acting): COVAX and C-TAP may be critical—but at the current rate at which they can source supplies and foster cooperation, they will not be the solution for the access crisis, especially in the Global South. They are also too deferential to pharma power and influence and rely on volunteerism, which is not sustainable in my view. Our challenge is to get as many supplies to the Global South as soon as possible—and this is why the TRIPS waiver, other compulsory licensing measures, and the voluntary transfer of technology need to be vigorously pursued. It is critical to have manufacturing capacity, to dispel the myths of the implications of the TRIPS waiver, and to use other means of sharing technology fairly (especially for research funded by public sources). Most importantly, we have to remind everyone of the impact that interrupted and insufficient access in poorer and middle-income countries will have—especially as more variants are discovered.
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Narrator: COVAX is not enough to make sure that South Africa has equitable access to the vaccine. There is evidence that the promise of a huge quantity of donated vaccines from upper-income countries, like the UK to COVAX, was not delivered. Only 14% of promised doses from upper-income countries and 12% of promised doses from the pharmaceutical companies were delivered through COVAX.
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Narrator: A vaccine patent waiver, stopping TRIPS is an answer to ensure that South Africa has equitable access to the vaccine and the ability to produce their own. In a global pandemic,
Intellectual Property and profit should not be put first, over the lives of South Africans.
~Music (Acoustic)~
Narrator: The United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, and other high-income countries need to stand in solidarity and support the patent waiver. This is the step that is needed. To move in the direction of ending vaccine inequality in South Africa.
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Narrator: This podcast was produced by Liz Poole for the Spring 2022 Global Health course at Guilford College.
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References
Aborode, AT, Olofinsao, OA, Osmond, E, et al. Equal access of COVID-19 vaccine distribution in Africa: challenges and way forward. J Med Virol. 2021; 93: 5212- 5215. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.27095
Chattu, V. K., Singh, B., Kaur, J., & Jakovljevic, M. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccine, TRIPS, and Global Health Diplomacy: India's Role at the WTO Platform. BioMed research international, 2021, 6658070. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6658070
Godwell Nhamo, David Chikodzi, Hlengiwe Precious Kunene & Nthivhiseni Mashula (2021) COVID-19 vaccines and treatments nationalism: Challenges for low-income countries and the attainment of the SDGs, Global Public Health, 16:3, 319-339, DOI: 10.1080/17441692.2020.1860249
Hein, W., & Paschke, A. (2020). Access to COVID-19 Vaccines and Medicines – a Global Public Good. German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25695
Iacobucci G. Covid-19: How will a waiver on vaccine patents affect global supply? BMJ 2021; 373 :n1182 doi:10.1136/bmj.n1182
TORREELE, E., & AMON, J. J. (2021). Equitable COVID-19 Vaccine Access. Health and
Human Rights, 23(1), 273–288. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27040053
Lindsey, B. (2022, March 9). Why intellectual property and pandemics don’t mix. Brookings.
