More than 170 former heads of states and governments and Nobel laureates, including Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus, on Thursday in an open letter called on US president Joe Biden to support a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines.
A waiver of intellectual property rules would allow for a scale up in manufacturing in the US and around the world, overcoming artificial supply constraints.
The former world leaders and Nobel laureates encouraged Biden to take the urgent action only he can. “Let this moment be remembered in history as the time we chose to put the collective right to safety for all ahead of the commercial monopolies of the few,” read the letter.
The letter specifically asked Biden to support a proposal from the South African and Indian governments at the World Trade Organisation to temporarily waive intellectual property rules related to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
“Big pharmaceutical companies are setting the terms of the end of today's pandemic – and the cost of allowing senseless monopolies is only more death and more people being pushed into poverty,” said Muhammad Yunus.
“We need strong government action to lead- not only philanthropy, and not only the private sector - to solve today’s unprecedented crisis. We together urge President Biden to stand on the right side of history – and ensure a vaccine is a global common good, free of intellectual property protections,” he added.
"President Biden has said that no one is safe until everyone is safe, and now with the G7 ahead there is an unparalleled opportunity to provide the leadership that only the US can provide and that hastens an end to the pandemic for the world,” said Gordon Brown, former prime minister of the United Kingdom.
The letter said that supporting the emergency waiver of COVID-19 related intellectual property rules would give people around the globe a chance to wake up to a world free from the virus.
