Is there a ban on Covid vaccine exports to the US?

Is there a ban on exporting coronavirus vaccines to the US?

There is no formal ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components, such as syringes, vials and filters. Companies that make vaccines, or items needed for puncture manufacturers around the world, can export them freely.

However, Washington has used a power of war known as the Defense Production Act to force private companies to fulfill their contracts before other orders. This has caused manufacturers in other parts of the world, such as the Serum Institute of India, to complain about not being able to buy items that would normally be imported from the US. In normal times, the United States is the world’s largest exporter of syringes and needles, according to the OECD.

U.S. officials have defended his use of the DPA. “Making vaccines requires a lot of specialized materials and not enough to circulate,” an administration official said this week. “There’s only more global manufacturing worldwide than suppliers can currently support.”

Apart from that, the United States has a large stock of doses of Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine that they acquired at the beginning of the development process. Until recently, it rejected requests from other countries to share these blows.

So why has the US exported so few doses?

The Joe Biden administration had said it would not send vaccines to other parts of the world until there was a plentiful supply in the U.S. and its focus was on firing into the American arms.

Biden said during his speech to Congress Wednesday: “We will become an arsenal of vaccines for other countries, just as America is an arsenal of democracy for the world…[But]all Americans will have access to it sooner. “

As supply has increased, the administration has been pressured to share some of its stock, especially AstraZeneca vaccines, which have not yet been approved in the US. But some in the administration are worried they will need more doses in the future to fight new strains or to administer annual booster shots.

What is the impact of the Defense Production Act?

The DPA has been used dozens of times to make sure manufacturers prioritize the medical equipment needed to fight the pandemic. N95 masks, gowns, syringes and vials have been purchased under the terms of DPA, which allow the government to dictate which national contracts should be fulfilled first.

One consequence of this is that pharmaceutical companies have warned hospitals to expect shortages of certain drugs later in the year, as the equipment normally used to produce them has been diverted to make equipment and drugs for fight Covid-19.

The DPA does not allow the administration to block exports abroad, and officials said foreign vaccine manufacturers find it difficult to obtain ingredients simply because global demand is so high. As a result, the Biden administration said this week that it would send its own supplies to manufacture AstraZeneca vaccines in India.

Is there anything preventing the Biden administration from sending finished doses it owns overseas?

Industry executives and government officials said a clause was inserted in the original contracts signed between the Donald Trump administration and vaccine manufacturers, which banned the government from exporting the doses it owned. Officials said drug manufacturers wanted the clause to protect them from possible lawsuits from foreigners claiming that doses made in the United States had made them sick.

Paul Mango, the former deputy director of the health department’s cabinet during the Trump administration, said, “Even the president can’t export them without somehow making sure pharmaceutical companies don’t take responsibility when they come out. of the country”.

Biden officials did not say how they overcame this legal hurdle when they agreed to export doses of 4 million AstraZeneca vaccines to Canada and Mexico and another 60 million to the rest of the world. But the answer may lie in the complex agreement for both Canada and Mexico, where doses are technically “borrowed” on the basis that the two countries will return doses made to their own countries later.

Will the Biden administration agree to suspend vaccine patents?

India and South Africa have submitted a proposal to the World Trade Organization in Geneva to allow countries to temporarily revoke patent rights for pandemic-related medical products. The proposal has the support of 60 countries.

While the Trump administration strongly opposed the waiver of intellectual property rules, along with the United Kingdom, the EU and Switzerland, Biden’s top commercial official, Katherine Tai, scandalized pharmaceutical companies. Americans apparently subjecting this position to review.

His office has said the agency is “exploring all avenues” and “evaluating the effectiveness” of the waiver, and Tai has told the WTO that it is interested in learning more about “how the market has once failed. more in meeting the health needs of developing countries “.

Proponents of a waiver of WTO intellectual property rules, known as trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights or travel, said the temporary suspension of the rules would allow more countries developing make their own copies of the vaccines without fear of being sued for IP Violations.

However, pharmaceutical companies are strongly opposed to this waiver, arguing that the lack of available manufacturing capacity is causing bottlenecks, rather than IP protections.

Will that be enough?

Experts warn that even if a waiver is granted, much more will be needed to make sure the rest of the world has enough vaccines. Many people call on mRNA vaccine manufacturers, in particular, to help establish overseas manufacturing centers, as their technology seems the best to address new variants.

“We need to establish vaccine manufacturing centers, with technology transfer, to launch the mRNA vaccine elsewhere,” said Tom Frieden, former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “MRNA vaccines are much less susceptible to production delays, are much easier to modify for variants, are probably safer and more effective, and are faster to start production. Something like this needs to be done today. ”.