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Faisal Islam Profile picture
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27 Mar, 8 tweets, 3 min read
This is precisely what we discussed on @BBCNewsnight a week ago, after @deb_cohen obtained draft from WTO discussions on TRIPs agreement and demands, at that time, being resisted by wealthier countries, incl UK, to lift IP protections...US changing position would be stunning move
draft seen by Newsnight certainly also showed US reps too pushing back at time against poorer countries seeking waiver on vaccine intellectual property... full story here... ofc goes to heart of what PM said to MPs re incentives driving vaccine success
Argument in favour of IP waiver for pandemic vaccines was here, from last Friday’s Newsnight...

Counterargument from international pharma body here that manufacturing is the limiting factor:

IF, and its still a big IF, NBC is right and the US shifts position on this on the basis that the pandemic wont end until everyone is vaccinated - this will cut across many billions expected to be made in and after pandemic by big pharma companies..

UK response wd be fascinating
On one hand, Ox vaccine already licensed for mass manufacture in India, onward to developing countries, and being provided at cost by AZ for *period of pandemic*... but UK being v generous/ efficient to pharma companies is part of reason we got to front of vaccine q (eg Valneva)
Also big issue for EU, which you might presume would want to protect its big pharma companies’ IP... indeed how would this all even work if for example the Pfizer vaccine is in fact the Biontech vaccine...also points to reality of EU making a lot of money from the vaccine exports
Definitely worth watching Monday, per NBC source below, decision made by new USTR Katherine Tai... Pharma companies will be pushing back very hard. Great original story from @deb_cohen too

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More from @faisalislam

Faisal Islam Profile picture
27 Mar
Former FM & Alba Party leader Alex Salmond did suggest to me on @BBCNewsnight last night both that independence negotiations should start immediately if theres pro indy majority at Holyrood, and that if a referendum was denied, there were legal & “other democratic tests”
AS: “our argument is negotiations -which we believe should start when there is an independence majority in Parliament - that these negotiations might encompass referendums or other democratic tests..there might be international pressure, there could be international legal action”
also: “There will certainly be peaceful demonstrations of the people of Scotland. That's all part of the political pressure that you build up to take forward independence case”

Seems clear he intends to inject some pressure into faster paced push for indy, by variety of means.
Read 9 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
25 Mar
New sterling Fifty Pound note just released by Governor Andrew Bailey, featuring Alan Turing and the Computer he invented at Manchester University “this is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what is going to be” Image
Governor Bailey: “Alan Turing was a gay man, whose transformational work in the fields of computer science, codebreaking, and developmental biology, was still not enough to spare him the appalling treatment to which he was subjected....
Governor: “By placing him on this new £50 banknote, we celebrate him for his achievements, and the values he symbolises, for which we can all be very proud.”
Read 4 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
23 Mar
President Biden addressing the EU Council meeting this week ...
After USTR acknowledged “ongoing review” of US-UK negotiations to date, my understanding is attempt here is to make it pro green etc.

But entire backdrop of any UK-US deal now so different from an administration that under Trump wanted to undermine EU & detach UK from it...
When I interviewed Trump’s USTR Lighthizer, was clear he was very focussed that what he would offer to UK would depend on how clean was the break between UK & EU, and he was sceptical UK would actually do it.

Question now is whether USTR will pick up reins of same negotiation...
Read 4 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
23 Mar
Very interesting report from the Industrial Strategy Council explaining the UK state role in helping academics/ industry compress the OXford/ Astra vaccine development from 10-15 years to 11 months - though the ISC has just itself been disbanded by Government:
Government comes out of this report from Council it has disbanded very well - indeed this could be just the thing to send to EU capitals to explain why as co-parent of the vaccine, there was a certain expectation of its first fruits, while supplying rest of world at cost
Vaccine Taskforce became a “co-creator” of solutions for vaccine development with Oxford University which “proved crucial” in expediting trials... replaced DHSC as “owner”...

MHRA embedded staff at AZ to allow rolling clinical trials...
Read 9 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
23 Mar
Blimey - of the 693,000 payrolled jobs lost over past pandemic year... 611k or 88% have been lost to under 35 year olds...
Overall this mornings jobs numbers did show some stabilisation at an unemployment rate of 5%, lower on latest weekly measures - despite new lockdown. Obvs thanks to 5m on furlough and employers adapting better to restrictions...
And the ONS latest attempt to estimate how many foreign workers left the uk over the past year - puts it at 180,000 fewer - roughly the population of Portsmouth lost of EU workers, presumed to have returned home. Less Than some early estimates but doesn’t include self employed.
Read 4 tweets
Faisal Islam Profile picture
21 Mar
Again Kate Bingham comes out of this well - day 1 coordination with US - this argues, as Id heard, German efforts to push the Biontech (Pfizer) vaccine invented in Germany came up against a bet on sanofi and precautionary principle applied to new mRNA tech nytimes.com/2021/03/20/wor…
Ie EU grabbed this competence in health during crisis from nation states - then applied non crisis value for money procurement & risk averse precautionary principles to programme. Difficult not to see that eg Germany would have done better if this had stayed national competence
As NYT put it and I’ve detailed elsewhere UK & US went into business with the pharma industry as a type of VC partner, and derisked the investments too, and so got hold of the supplies first....
Read 6 tweets

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