Many of you are following the ongoing effort by some political leaders to strip our scientific intellectual property rights pertaining to vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. This proprietary science and technology was developed by our scientists working day and night at great financial risk to our companies.
Getting life-saving vaccines to the developing world is a very serious concern, and BIO has lead efforts to develop the SHARE program, which the United States seems to be following. Moreover, we ARE sharing our IP and know-how through almost 300 voluntary global agreements to increase vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity. However, this has not changed the minds of those who believe we should simply turn over all of our science to countries around the world. It is misguided, and most importantly, won't solve the problem.
As we continue this fight, BIO gathered nearly 300 biotech companies, both small and large, to declare our unified opposition to this policy. Most of these companies don't even have a product on the market, so the only "property" they own is their scientific research—their intellectual property.
Click here for the declaration, please share on your social media channels and with any stakeholder that should be alerted to this very real challenge.
Sincerely,
Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath
President & CEO, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)