Senator Jeff Merkley asks the NIH about public safeguards in COVID -19 vaccine contracts
Channel: KEIWashDC
Date: 2020-07-02

At a July 2, 2020 US Senate hearing on the efforts to fast track a COVID-19 vaccine, Senator Jeff Merkeley and others asked the witnesses about weakening public safeguards related to pricing of the possible vaccines. The questions referenced records obtained by KEI through FOIA requests and KEI's Briefing Note on Other Transaction Authority agreements. See: https://www.keionline.org/coronavirus.

The hearing was held by the US Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, titled “Review of Operation Warp Speed: Researching, Manufacturing, & Distributing a Safe & Effective Coronavirus Vaccine.” The witnesses were Francis Collins, Director of the NIH; Robert Redfield, Director of the CDC; and Gary Disbrow, Acting Director of BARDA. 

During this hearing several Senators asked the witnesses about weakening Bayh-Dole safeguards related to pricing of government-funded inventions in contracts related to coronavirus vaccines, in response to the July 1, 2020 publication of BARDA coronavirus contracts obtained by KEI through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as well as a KEI briefing note on the use of “Other Transactions Authority,” or OTA, to bypass the Bayh-Dole Act and the FAR on intellectual property and data rights. 

See: https://www.keionline.org/coronavirus

And on the OTAs: Other Transaction Agreements: Government Contracts that May Eliminate Protections for the Public on Pricing, Access and Competition, Including in Connection with COVID-19, KEI Briefing Note 2020:3. https://www.keionline.org/bn-2020-3
 
A link to the full Senate hearing: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/review-of-operation-warp-speed-researching-manufacturing-and-distributing-a-safe_effective-coronavirus-vaccine