TAPP Appears on The Jack Tomczak Show to Discuss the TRIPS Waiver

Executive Director Kent Kaiser joined The Jack Tomczak Show to discuss the TRIPS waiver. Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) continue to debate the expansion of the waiver that is dismantling U.S. intellectual property (IP) rights.

Recall the TRIPS waiver: On June 17, encouraged by U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, member states of the WTO voted to remove IP protections on COVID-19 vaccines.

Now the WTO, in a decision backed by the Biden Administration, wants to take the waiver a step further. The waiver has already stripped the rights of American innovators, causing harm to doctors and patients alike. Additionally, the waiver allows hostile countries such as China and Russia to steal American IP as they push for global technological supremacy.

An expansion of the TRIPS waiver to include diagnostics and therapeutics would be detrimental to American innovators and to American patients who rely on innovators for life-saving medicine.

 The TRIPS waiver is a short-sighted and harmful policy. It must be opposed.