This is a guest opinion column

With one of the lowest December unemployment rates in the country, Alabama’s economic prospects are looking bright.

We owe much of that progress to the state’s congressional delegation, who have long championed policies that support Alabama’s emerging biotechnology sector. Last year, they pushed for a series of crucial earmarks in the federal government’s final omnibus spending package — including $76 million for the University of Alabama at Birmingham to build a new biomedical research facility.

Now, we need them to take on a new mission. Because some officials in the Biden administration are considering a proposal that could undo all the progress we’ve been making and provide a gift to our global rivals, especially China. We need Alabama’s leaders to lend their voices to the growing chorus of opposition to the proposal.

During the height of the pandemic, several foreign governments argued at the World Trade Organization that we should eliminate all Covid-related patent protections. After deliberation, President Biden threw his support last year behind a WTO waiver of patent rights on Covid vaccines. But he deferred judgment on whether to extend the waiver to Covid treatments and tests.

That decision is now due, and extending the waiver would be a huge mistake. The United States leads the world in pharmaceutical research and discovery because of our strong patent protections. It’s time to remind the WTO that its job is to enforce patents globally, not to undermine them.

The stakes are high. Alabama alone is home to 780 bioscience companies and counting. The sector’s annual economic impact exceeds $7 billion, employing nearly 18,000 Alabamians. Across the United States, the biopharmaceutical industry supports over 4.7 million jobs.

Many experts have warned that waiving Covid-related patents will dampen investment in pharmaceutical R&D. With the average cost for each new drug approval more than $2 billion, investors must have confidence that if they’re successful, they will have a chance to recoup their expenses, make a return, and have funds available for future projects. That’s what patent protection provides. This model is the reason America is home to so many top-tier pharmaceutical enterprises like Birmingham’s Southern Research Institute.

If efforts to further erode intellectual property protection succeed, Alabama’s biotech industry and its workers will pay the price. Less investment translates into fewer research projects and jobs– and greater vulnerability to future public health threats.

Our national security is also on the line. China has ambitions to overtake us in biotech and would jump at the chance for free access to patented technologies that American investors paid to develop.

Meanwhile, there is scant evidence to suggest that intellectual property is keeping Covid treatments or tests, let alone vaccines, from reaching patients who need them. Today, supply greatly outstrips global demand.

The bottom line is that an expanded patent waiver is bad for the United States, and especially for Alabama’s emerging biotech sector. Our representatives in Congress should stand up for hard-working Alabamians by urging President Biden to defend intellectual property rights.

Bill Reeves is a former fisheries biologist at the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and served as President of the Alabama Fisheries Association. The Florence native and Gulf Shores resident holds a master’s degree from Auburn University.