Tournament: JW Patterson HS Invitational | Round: 3 | Opponent: Broken Arrow CF | Judge: Shawn Rafferty
Gary Woller ~BYU Prof., "An Overview by Gary Woller", A Forum on the Role of Environmental Ethics, June 1997, pg. 10~
Moreover, virtually all public policies entail some redistribution of economic or political resources,
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perhaps at times a necessary, basis for public policy in a democracy.
Second, death is the greatest denial of freedom since it destroys all possibilities and life projects – this means that life is the greatest impact under utilitarianism and relevant under any other ethical framework.
Bauman 95 ~Zygmunt Bauman (University of Leeds Professor Emeritus of Sociology). "Life In Fragments: Essays In Postmodern Morality." p. 66-71. 1995~
The being for is like living towards the future: a being filled with anticipation
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acting morally, and sometimes even of being good, in the present.
Contention – Pandemic Response
Status quo TRIPS agreements provide insufficient flexibility for developing countries to combat the pandemic
Ranjan '21: Prabhash Ranjan is Senior Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Legal Studies, South Asian University, New Delhi. "The Case for Waiving Intellectual Property Protection for COVID-19 vaccines." Observer Research Foundation. April 6th, 2021. https://www.orfonline.org/research/the-case-for-waiving-intellectual-property-protection-for-covid-19-vaccines/. FD.
Those who oppose India and South Africa's proposal for a TRIPS waiver argue that since the TRIPS Agreement contains several flexibilities that can be used to address public health exigencies, the demand to suspend IP obligations is superfluous.~37~ Indeed, the TRIPS Agreement contains those flexibilities. One such important flexibility is compulsory license – the right of a government to issue a license to make use of a patent during the patent term without the patent holder's consent, which is regulated by Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement. Under Article 31, public non-commercial use is also possible—i.e. a government can authorise the use of a patent for its purposes. According to a study, out of 144 instances of the use of TRIPS flexibility measures by 89 countries from 2001-2016, 100 instances were of compulsory licensing or public non-commercial use to increase the production of generic medicines at affordable prices.~38~ Likewise, the study also found that a large number of LDCs made use of the long transition period available to them to comply with the TRIPS Agreement~39~ – another important TRIPS flexibility.~40~ It would be erroneous to conclude, however, that these flexibilities would be sufficient in dealing with all public health challenges especially one as massive as the current pandemic. The utility of the same TRIPS flexibility, such as compulsory license, is not the same for all countries. While countries that have manufacturing ability in the pharmaceutical sector can effectively employ compulsory licenses, a large number of LDCs do not have such capability. Even developing countries that can use compulsory licenses to produce patented drugs are always under pressure from developed countries not to issue such licenses. For example, India was subjected to relentless attacks by the US government when it issued a compulsory license in 2012 to produce a generic version of Bayer's cancer drug.~41~ As pointed out earlier, for countries that lack manufacturing ability, the compulsory license is not a useful flexibility. Article 31(f) of the TRIPS Agreement states that a compulsory license may be issued predominantly for the domestic market of the country issuing the license. Thus, generic medicines produced under a compulsory license cannot be exported. As a result, countries that have limited manufacturing ability in the pharmaceutical sector will not be able to benefit from the provision on compulsory licensing given in Article 31 of the TRIPS Agreement. This problem was recognised by the WTO in 2001 as evident in paragraph 6 of the Doha declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. It states: "We recognize that WTO members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities in the pharmaceutical sector could face difficulties in making effective use of compulsory licensing under the TRIPS Agreement. We instruct the Council for TRIPS to find an expeditious solution to this problem and to report to the General Council before the end of 2002." In August 2003, the WTO's General Council adopted a decision that waived the obligations imposed by Articles 31(f) and 31(h) to allow countries to export drugs manufactured under compulsory licensing to countries that lacked the manufacturing ability.~42~ Finally, in 2005, the TRIPS agreement was amended, which took effect on 23 January 2017,~43~ to include Article 31 bis making the 2003 decision permanent. The fact that first the waiver followed by the amendment of the TRIPS Agreement was needed demonstrates that the TRIPS flexibilities were not adequate in addressing all the situations of drug scarcity. While this amendment has been touted as having solved the problem of countries with insufficient manufacturing ability to access drugs at affordable prices, concerns remain about the cumbersome process that countries need to follow to import and export such medicines.~44~ For instance, if a country issues a compulsory license to export drugs to another nation that lacks manufacturing capability, the exporting country has to ensure that the drugs so manufactured are exported to that nation only; the medicines should be easily identifiable through different colour, or shape; only the amount necessary to meet the requirements of the eligible importing country are manufactured; and the importing country has to notify the WTO's TRIPS council.~45~ These conditions disincentivise generic pharmaceutical manufacturers from manufacturing products under compulsory licenses for export.~46~ Since often, the countries that lack manufacturing capability are smaller in size, there is less economies of scale to be reaped to attract the interest of generic manufacturers to export drugs to such countries.~47~ Indeed, the problem with the economies of scale and the cumbersome procedure were evident in the only instance when this system was put to use in the last decade and a half, involving Rwanda and Canada.~48~ In their proposal, India and South Africa identified the unworkable nature of Article 31 bis to address the challenges posed by Covid-19. Given that a large number of counties lack manufacturing capability in the pharmaceutical sector and that they would need Covid-19 vaccines for their population, the lengthy and cumbersome procedures listed in Article 31 bis would only hobble their efforts at universal inoculation. Following the procedures listed in Article 31 bis for a large number of countries simultaneously would severely slow down the export of vaccines, thus proving to be costly when countries need these products urgently amid a pandemic. Therefore, the sheer scale of the problem and colossal demand for vaccines from all countries of the world make the TRIPS flexibility impracticable. There are other flexibilities as well such as voluntary licenses—i.e. licenses given by patent holders to generic companies on mutually agreed terms. The AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, for instance, that has been licensed to India's Serum Institute is an example of a voluntary license. However, the voluntary licenses are often shrouded in secrecy where the patent holder controls important decisions such as who would be the ultimate beneficiaries of the drug and how the third-party sellers are to be selected. The same can be said about the voluntary license issued by AstraZeneca to Serum Institute.~49~ To boost the production of vaccines to meet huge demand, several other companies would have to be upgraded, requiring a non-exclusive deal which is unlikely to happen.~50~
Prolonged lack of access to vaccines in developing countries magnifies the impact of COVID-19 – new variants and state collapse cause global instability and violence
Merelli 8-14-21: Annalisa Merelli. "Low Vaccine Rates in Africa are a Global Security Issue". Quartz Africa. August 14th, 2021. https://qz.com/africa/2047286/low-vaccination-rates-in-africa-can-cause-new-variants/. FD.
More than 4.5 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered
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refugee crises, and leaving people vulnerable to terrorism and other political manipulation.
Vaccine inequity is the single largest barrier to overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic
W.H.O '21: World Health Organization. "Vaccine inequity undermining global economic recovery". July 22nd, 2021. https://www.who.int/news/item/22-07-2021-vaccine-inequity-undermining-global-economic-recovery. FD.
COVID-19 vaccine inequity will have a lasting and profound impact on socio-
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recovery from the pandemic and drive progress towards the health-related SDGs.
IP protections stifles pandemic response by hindering innovation – a TRIPS waiver would set the opposite precedent
Lindsey '21: Brink Lindsey, Vice President of Niskanen Center. June 11th, 2021. "Why Intellectual Property and Pandemics don't mix". Brookings Institute. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/06/03/why-intellectual-property-and-pandemics-dont-mix/.
When we take the longer view, we can see a fundamental mismatch between the
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slow the diffusion of a new invention by restricting output and raising prices.
Thrasher '21: Rachel Thrasher. "Why the TRIPS Waiver Should Include More than Just Vaccines". BU Global Development Policy Center. June 7th, 2021. https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2021/06/07/why-the-trips-waiver-should-include-more-than-just-vaccines/. FD.
Nearly eight months after an initial proposal from India and South Africa, the United
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a bona fide TRIPS Waiver and more of a narrow vaccine patent waiver.
Jung and Kwon 2015 ( Youn Jung and Soonman Kwon, The Effects of Intellectual Property Rights on Access to Medicines and Catastrophic Expenditure, International Journal of Health Services, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 507–29. DOI.org (Crossref), doi:10.1177/0020731415584560)NotJacob
Discussion This study investigated how the national level of IPR is associated with individuals' access
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result in welfare loss in developing countries.6,18,42
Chen 2010 (Ge Chen, Fragmentation of International Law: the Impact on Access to Knowledge in International Copyright Law, World Intellectual Property organization)NotJacob
Under the institutional lens, the redistributive value of knowledge goods is likewise relatively unheeded
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into consideration if global coordination in knowledge governance is to be made.111
Enshrining a Right to Health inside of Intellectual Property rights is not only legal, but necessary to change the institutionalization of medical accessibility!
Mike 2020 (Jennifer Mike, Access to essential medicines to guarantee women's rights to
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they can access the cheaper versions of the drugs, particularly improvised women.