Biden's Inner Circle Maintains Close Ties to Vaccine Makers, Disclosures
Reveal
By Lee Fang, The Intercept
26 March 21
As concerns grow about a global "vaccine apartheid," watchdogs worry that
the Biden administration is primed to favor profits over people.
In the coming months, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, President Joe Biden's
ambassador to the United Nations, will hear from a growing chorus of
developing nations about the foundering efforts to distribute the
coronavirus vaccine globally. The nations, many of which have not even begun
vaccinating their populations, are demanding that the U.S. support proposals
to temporarily waive certain patent and intellectual property rights so that
generic coronavirus vaccines can be produced.
The proposals have been fiercely opposed by American drugmakers, including
Pfizer, a pharmaceutical giant that Thomas-Greenfield's former consulting
firm has recently counted as a client. Thomas-Greenfield and her number two,
Jeffrey DeLaurentis, previously worked for the Albright Stonebridge Group,
or ASG, a consulting firm founded by former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright. The firm, which represents Pfizer, specializes in helping large
corporations understand and influence international trade policy, including
on intellectual property.
Many leading figures in Biden's administration, including key White House
advisers, State Department leaders, and health care officials have financial
stake in or professional ties to vaccine manufacturers, which are now
lobbying to prevent policies that would cut into future profits over the
vaccine.
ASG in particular has unusual amounts of sway in the Biden administration.
State Department officials Victoria Nuland, Wendy Sherman, Uzra Zeya, and
Molly Montgomery previously worked at ASG, as did Philip Gordon, Vice
President Kamala Harris's national security adviser.
But several others in Biden's inner circle also have potential conflicts of
interest:
Anita Dunn, the leading strategist on Biden's presidential campaign who now
serves as White House adviser, is on leave from her job as managing partner
at the consulting firm she co-founded, SKDK, which provides extensive public
relations and advertising services to Pfizer. Dunn intends to return to the
SKDK this summer. SKDK, which did not respond to a request for comment, has
continued to promote Pfizer's vaccines on social media.
Susan Rice, the domestic policy adviser, holds up to $5 million in shares of
Johnson & Johnson and up to $50,000 in shares of Pfizer, according to a
disclosure made public this week.
Eric Lander, the White House science adviser, holds up to $1 million in
shares of BioNTech, Pfizer's partner for its coronavirus vaccine.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken previously consulted for Gilead Science,
the biotech company that produced remdesivir, the only Covid-19 treatment
approved by the FDA so far.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Biden's pick for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services, previously served as an attorney advising both Pfizer and Gilead
on federal policy issues.
The White House has previously said that Lander will be recused from "any
such matters related to COVID vaccines" until he divests from his holdings
in BioNTech. Asked for comment about other Biden officials, a spokesperson
for the administration referred The Intercept to the president's executive
order banning officials from engaging in matters related to former clients
for a period of two years.
Pressure is growing for a reversal in what some are calling a "vaccine
apartheid." Roughly three-quarters of the available vaccine doses have been
distributed to only 10 countries, while current projections indicate that
much of the developing world will have to wait years to reach significant
vaccination levels.
After coming into office, Biden reversed course from the Trump
administration and committed $4 billion to COVAX, the international program
backed by the World Health Organization and a number of global public health
nonprofits, to buy and distribute coronavirus vaccines to countries in need.
But the COVAX program, which continues to face underfunding, will not be
able to vaccinate 90 percent of people in 67 low-income countries this year.
Some developing nations may have to wait until 2024 to achieve adequate
levels of vaccination.
That disparity has led to increasing pressure to support a proposal led by
India and South Africa to temporarily waive patent protections on
coronavirus medicines, including vaccines, so that manufacturers around the
world quickly ramp up production of generic versions.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizebeth Warren, D-Mass., have pushed
for the waiver, along with a growing number of public health, labor, and
human rights organizations.
"It is unconscionable that amid a global health crisis, huge,
multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical companies continue to prioritize profits
by protecting their monopolies and driving up prices rather than
prioritizing the lives of people everywhere," said Sanders in a video
released earlier this month.
The pharmaceutical industry, in a bid to shield an expected financial
windfall, has pressed the Biden administration not only to oppose the
waiver, but also to impose trade-related sanctions on countries that back
the proposal or move to manufacture coronavirus vaccines without permission
from patent holders.
Early indications suggest that the Biden administration may follow the
approach of the Trump administration in opposing any waiver over patent or
intellectual property rights. An unofficial readout of the World Trade
Organization meeting in February noted the "U.S. reiterated that the
intellectual property framework provides critical legal and commercial
incentives to drive private entities to undertake the risk and make the
appropriate investments."
Still, the administration has made clear it is still reviewing the IP waiver
and may consider it at the WTO meeting in April.
"The top priority of the United States is saving lives and ending the
pandemic in the United States and around the world," said Adam Hodge, a
spokesperson for the U.S Trade Representative, in a statement to The
Intercept. "As part of rebuilding our alliances, we are exploring every
avenue to coordinate with our global partners and are evaluating the
efficacy of this specific proposal by its true potential to save lives."
James Love, the director of Knowledge Ecology International, a nonprofit
organization that addresses human rights aspects of intellectual property
rights and medical innovation, said the Biden administration would soon face
several critical moments to shape global vaccine policy, including its
decision over the WTO waiver.
"These are going to be White House-level decisions," said Love, noting that
his group was hoping for more personnel "on the other side, with a history
of being more critical of the drug companies" shaping these policies.
"In terms of this administration, knowing these personalities," he added,
"it shouldn't be typical Washington, D.C., swamp people who immediately,
when they're out of government, go back to making big bucks at powerful
corporations like Pfizer."
