FACT BRIEF

Has Pfizer played a key role in the evolution of global pharmaceutical patent rules?

Sunday, March 21, 2021

By Gus Fisher

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YES

Global rules governing intellectual property laws for vaccines and pharmaceuticals resulted from years of trade negotiations leading to what’s known as the TRIPS Agreement in 1994. A key figure then backing the agreement was the chairman of Pfizer, Edmund Pratt, who wanted intellectual property protections against generic-drug manufacturers in emerging markets.

Pratt was named to a U.S. presidential advisory committee on trade in 1979. In 1986, he co-founded the Intellectual Property Committee, a group of 13 large corporations advocating intellectual property laws in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which was succeeded by the World Trade Organization in 1995.

Other Pfizer executives pushed for strong patent laws in influential groups within both the U.S. government and intergovernmental bodies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

World Trade Organization Overview: The TRIPS Agreement

Peterson Institute for International Economics Case studies in US trade negotiation, chapter 3: Trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (page 83, TRIPS: timeline)

Peter Drahos with John Braithwaite Information feudalism: Who owns the knowledge economy? (p. 69)

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