Campaign Launched Against President Biden for Vaccine Patent Waiver

Last month, a lobbying organization representing several major pharmaceutical corporations discreetly Launched a campaign against President Joe Biden for supporting the waiver of intellectual property protections for Covid-19 Vaccine. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, is a political lobbying organization representing more than 30 pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, who manufacture Covid Vaccine.

A CNBC check of the companies’ ad archives began launching a digital ad campaign targeting Biden decision late last month on Facebook and Google. While PhRMA slammed the Biden administration’s plan quickly after it was announced, the organization did not begin a direct campaign against the waiver push. The effort’s specifics were yet to be revealed.

Waiving patent rights, according to proponents, allows impoverished countries to ramp up the manufacture of the Covid Vaccine. According to Google’s ad history, one group’s advertising on the search site cost between $1,000 and $50,000. The other was less than $100. According to Google’s data, both focused on the Washington, D.C. area.

According to Google’s ad transparency report, each ad was active for up to five days through the end of May. According to a Hill-HarrisX poll, 57 percent of registered voters oppose the waiver, according to another PhRMA tweet. According to Facebook’s ad library, PhRMA spent almost $245,000 on digital ads between late April and the end of May. A portion of that money was spent on ads criticizing Biden decision, which ran towards the end of May.

Over the first three months of 2021, the PhRMA spent a little over $8.5 million on lobbying. According to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, the organization spent over $25 million on lobbying in 2020 and nearly $30 million in 2019.