Pharma Stocks Tumble over Biden's Support for Patent Waiver
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7 May 2021 00:14 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Shares of drugmakers involved in the production of COVID-19 vaccines fell on Thursday after U.S. President Joe Biden planned to back intellectual property waivers on vaccines the day before.
Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax dropped 5.2%, 8.2%, and 10.1%, Reuters reported. Chinese vaccine makers' shares also fell. CanSino Biologics Inc., maker of the single-dose Covid-19 vaccine, lost 16%, while Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group was down 10%.
On Wednesday, Biden expressed his support of the World Trade Organization (WTO) proposal to temporarily suspend intellectual property rights, as a way to help other nations' fight against the pandemic.
On Sunday, the WTO called on member nations to temporarily waive patent protection for the Covid-19 vaccine. That way, other nations would have the opportunity to produce a Covid-19 vaccine using the same process of technology as Moderna, BioNTech, and Pfizer.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations said that Biden's support for waiving patents of Covid-19 vaccines was "the wrong answer" to a complex problem, and called for more technology transfer agreements.
"Waiving the COVID-19 vaccine patent will not increase production or provide the practical solutions needed to combat this global health crisis. Instead, it is likely to cause disruption," IFPMA said in a statement, representing a research-based pharmaceutical company, Reuters reported.
REUTERS l INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
