Watchdog Slams Biden Administration for Undermining Life Saving IP Protections

For Immediate Release

Contact: David Williams (202-258-6527)

Washington, D.C. – The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) strongly condemns the decision by the Biden Administration to back a World Trade Organization waiver of the patents on vaccine technology that helped produce the Covid-19 vaccines in record time.

TPA President David Williams offered the following comments:

“Strong intellectual property (IP) protection is the reason why American companies lead the way in developing the most effective vaccines to Covid-19 available and did so in record time. Waiving the patents on these vaccines is a short-term solution sure to inflict long-term misery with consequences to the economy and the development of the next life-saving drug. Undermining IP protections today will make it that much more difficult to develop the revolutionary medicines we will undoubtedly need in the future. The Covid-19 pandemic won’t be the last public health crisis we’ll ever face, considering we still lack cures for things like cancer and AIDS.

“There’s undoubtedly a need to get more shots into arms here at home and abroad to finally end this horrible pandemic. The administration and Congress should strengthen, not weaken, IP protections. American innovators of all sizes should be properly compensated for their ingenuity, and not have their IP yanked away from them by government officials.”

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.