KUALA LUMPUR – Asia should lead the way in opening up patent protections to produce cheaper generic versions of life-saving medicines for critical diseases, from Covid-19 to HIV/AIDS, said Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Welcoming United States President Joe Biden’s administration’s intention to support a temporary waiver on intellectual property protection for the Covid-19 vaccine, he said this should pave the way for a transformation of the pharmaceutical patent system.
“Pausing the gears is not enough. Our obligation is to dismantle it entirely,” he said in a video address to Nikkei’s Future of Asia conference in Tokyo today.
Based on Article 25(1) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, he said, it is high time for innovation, including on drugs, vaccines and medical devices, to be brought out of the purview of individual patent rights, and for global property rights to be created instead.
For Asia to effectively prevent and fight pandemics, it needs to shift from a purely nationalistic approach to health services, to investing in health as a global public good, he said.
“Treating health infrastructure as a global public good would mean Asia as a whole treats health the way many individual countries treat education, security, the environment. In essence, as a critical piece of the global commons supported by a collective investment, for the benefit of all.”
Stressing that coronavirus infections must be suppressed as quickly as possible to prevent mutating variants that make current vaccines obsolete, Muhyiddin, however, noted that there are man-made hurdles to this effort.
For instance, the wealthiest 27 countries have 35.5% of the vaccines, although they comprise only 10.5% of the world population. These countries have more than enough vaccine doses to immunise people beyond their own populations.”
He said 20%, or 252 million out of the 1.23 billion doses administered across 174 countries so far, were taken up by the US alone.
In terms of production, he said, China and India have exported some 200 million and 66 million vaccine doses, or approximately 48% and 34% of their total production, respectively.
“In comparison, the US and UK have exported only three million and one million of their vaccine doses, respectively, or a mere 1.1% and 4% of their total production each.”
He said the failure of the global leadership to address the pandemic is due to human biases such as tribalism, as well as dysfunctional competition and short-term thinking.
“Of course, it is unrealistic to expect nations not to compete, or for them to forgo building their self-interests. But, we must also realise that long-term victory often doesn’t mean pushing your country ahead of the line all the time, every time.
“Certainly, one posits that in a post-Covid-19 world, it will be the countries that are the most generous, that build bridges rather than walls, and that bring their neighbours together rather than drive them away, that will be successful.”
Success also depends on whether Asian regional institutions can strengthen themselves with more robust conflict-management mechanisms and move towards a flexible view of state sovereignty, he said.
By demonstrating the ability to share leadership with the region’s weaker states in managing its security and economic conflicts, Asia’s emerging powers can gain global credibility and trust, and they can facilitate a substantive contribution to global governance from a position of leadership and strength, said Muhyiddin.
He said Malaysia pledges its utmost efforts to break the bonds of pandemic misery and cut the chains of poverty, and provide relief to people affected by tyranny.
“We have to help in every way we can, not because we want their commerce, not because we seek to extend our geopolitical influence, but because it is the right, moral thing to do.” – Bernama, May 20, 2021
