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Govts co-sponsoring proposal to waive IP on Covid-19 drugs ask WTO to include waiver on all medical tools
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
May 25 , 2021
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The governments co-sponsoring the proposal to waive intellectual property on Covid-19 medical tools have demanded to the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the scope of the waiver should cover all medical tools.
The co-sponsoring governments have recently submitted a revised proposal to the WTO following US expression of support for the temporary waiver of intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines.
The revised proposal reaffirms that the scope of the waiver should cover all medical tools – treatments, diagnostics and vaccines, as well as medical devices, protective equipment, their materials or components and their methods of manufacture needed for their production. It outlines that the duration of the waiver should be at least three years, and thereafter reviewed by the WTO General Council.
There is growing international consensus that this TRIPS waiver proposal should be negotiated and passed urgently. Covid-19 continues to ravage countries across the globe, and the world has lost nearly 3.5 million people. 62 countries are now official co-sponsors of the proposal, with Indonesia, Fiji, Vanuatu and Namibia having joined just in the last several weeks. Overall, more than 100 countries support the proposal, including China and Russia.
Recently, the US voiced its groundbreaking support for starting text-based negotiations on a waiver. On Thursday, the EU parliament passed a resolution on HIV/AIDS that included explicit support for the TRIPS waiver proposal. The EU parliament is also expected to vote on a dedicated resolution backing the TRIPS waiver proposal in early June. So far, however, the European Commission has stalled negotiations on the proposal.
Meanwhile, the international medical humanitarian organization, The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has urged all governments to immediately move towards text-based negotiations, now that a newly revised proposal has been submitted by the co-sponsoring governments.
“We are pleased to see the governments sponsoring the Covid-19 intellectual property waiver proposal reaffirm that the waiver aims to remove monopoly barriers for all medical tools, including medicines, diagnostic tests, vaccines and other equipment and materials needed to tackle this pandemic, for a minimum period of three years. With a frightening increase in infections and deaths in developing countries, and with potentially promising treatments in the pipeline, it is crucial that governments have every flexibility at their disposal to beat back this pandemic”, said Leena Menghaney, South Asia Head, MSF Access Campaign.
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