TRIPS waivers hurt businesses and investment – the aff solves

The threat a TRIPS waiver poses for SAB Biotherapeutics’ IP portfolio is faced by many biotechs, Sullivan explained. Companies must alter decisions about how they will allocate future R&D capital and how they approach the investor community. The threat can discourage investment, “especially from pre-revenue early-stage biopharmaceutical companies whose most important assets are their IP,” he said. Investor concerns are already impacting investment. “Stock prices of SME biotech firms that have invested in COVID-19 related R&D have on average suffered more (-73 percent) than the average stock in the U.S. (-5.4 percent) and more than the average SME biotech company not working on COVID-19 related R&D (-55 percent) since February 2021,” he testified. Along with preventing the pursuit of innovative treatments, the threat of a waiver also harms a vital segment of the U.S. economy. “The innovative U.S. biotech sector” directly employs 2.14 million, and contributes 10.3 million additional jobs. It has a $2.9 trillion impact on the U.S. economy, Sullivan said. “Reduced investment, brought on by increased risk to underlying IP assets, will affect research and manufacturing jobs in the United States and undermine our ability to harness the innovative potential of the U.S. private sector to timely and robustly respond to future global public health challenges.” Congress members concur “Unbridled enthusiasm as we have seen with the TRIPS waiver leads to unbridled disaster,” said Rep. Greg Murphy, M.D. (R-NC). “I can’t think of anything more destructive than the TRIPS waiver for American innovation.” He added that weakening IP rights is not only harmful to business. “It is an absolute national security issue.” Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) credited strong IP protections with enabling the United States to lead in the fight against COVID-19. “I’m proud of the fact that as the world looks for inoculations for vaccines for COVID, it’s the U.S. who led that way. And as the world looks for treatments, it is the U.S. that continues to lead the way,” he said. “It’s our intellectual property system.” “Recent independent analysis by the International Trade Commission (ITC) found that IP is not a barrier to access for COVID-19 treatments,” said Chair Smith, referring to a report by the USITC. Sullivan agreed. “With news of the WHO declaring the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 5, 2023, and with global supply of therapeutics far exceeding demand, a waiver is wholly unnecessary,” said Sullivan. It’s obvious the proposed waiver is not based on public health concerns, he added. “Rather, the debate suggests that proponents of the waiver are keen on leveraging the COVID pandemic to achieve a goal that has been decades in the making—the radical undermining of the existing global IP rights system.”