BIO warns USTR of global IP threats

BIO warns USTR of global threats to U.S. IP (including WTO waivers), while several new reports highlight the importance of biotech to sustainable farm productivity. (621 words, 3 minutes, 6 seconds)

BIO warns USTR of global IP threats, including IP waivers

BIO’s submission to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on global threats to intellectual property warns about the impact of further IP waivers.

Why the submission: USTR’s annual Special 301 report, which details threats to U.S. IP in other countries, integrates comments from stakeholders like BIO. 

Why it matters: “BIO’s members rely heavily on the strength and scope of their IP to generate investments needed to develop and commercialize their technologies,” says BIO’s submission.

A focus on WTO: A proposal to waive World Trade Organization (WTO) IP protections for COVID diagnostics and therapeutics will be considered at WTO’s Feb. 26-29 Ministerial Conference. USTR has no official position on the proposed waiver, which BIO explains would harm biotech innovation.

BIO details IP concerns in 10 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea.

BIO also lists problematic policy areas:

• Compulsory licenses take IP rights from the patent holder and give them to a third party.
• Technology localization forces firms to localize production, R&D, and even their patent.
• Poor regulatory data protection means information submitted to regulators can be misused by others.
• Obstacles to obtaining patents make IP protection hard to achieve.
• Patent enforcement challenges weaken IP protections.

What’s next: USTR is expected to submit its Special 301 report this spring. BIO will be watching the WTO conference later this month.

More Health News: 

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“While mRNA technology may provide an opportunity to tailor treatment to an individual patient, it may also be leveraged to address targets more widely expressed on many cancers, impact immunomodulation or immunosuppressive conditions, or help enable novel combinations. We’re exploring the potential of mRNA in the field of immuno-oncology in a variety of facets and cancer types, harnessing the body’s immune system to identify and kill cancer cells.”

Farm productivity must increase – and biotech must help

Agricultural productivity is lagging, while current agricultural systems generate health and environmental costs—but biotech can be part of the solution, say a few recent reports.

Where we are: Current food systems generate $10 trillion annually in excess health and environmental costs and perpetuate poverty, says the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC) Global Policy Report, published Wednesday.

Where we need to be: To feed the world, sustainable agricultural productivity must increase 1.91% annually until 2050—faster than the 1.14% growth between 2011-2021, according to the Global Agricultural Policy (GAP) initiative report on 2023.

How to get there: Biotechnology enables sustainable increases in farm productivity, says the GAP report. And governments must do more to support the private sector’s unprecedented number of new food system technologies, says FSEC.

Both reports note the impact of climate change—while a new study finds higher temperatures harm crops and decrease the productivity of farm workers.

Biotech solutions can increase farm productivity in the face of climate change through gene editing to make more productive and drought-tolerant crops, reduce food loss and waste, improve nutrition, and help livestock withstand the heat. In the long term, biotech can help reduce factors that drive climate change.

“Collaboration between the public, private, and civil sectors is critical,” to ensure farmers can access the best tools for sustainable productivity, says GAP. Government departments must better coordinate policy measures “to seize the opportunities offered by transforming food systems,” notes FSEC.

President Biden’s Monday: Campaigning in Las Vegas, where he’s committed to joining the picket line if hotel workers go on strike, Reuters reports.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The House Rules Committee will mark up H.R. 485, Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of 2023, which would prevent federal use of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), a discriminatory measure of health care outcomes. (Read more in Bio.News.)