Amid developed country resistance to India and South Africa’s joint proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ensure universal access to coronavirus vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed its support for the proposal.
“WHO welcomes South Africa and India’s recent proposal to the WTO to facilitate international and intellectual property agreements on covid-19 vaccines, treatments and tests in order to make the tools available to all who use them. they need at an affordable cost, “WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted.
“Ending the pandemic begins with collaboration. WHO launched the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP) in May, inviting countries to share data, knowledge and intellectual property on vital life-saving health products in the fight against coronavirus, “added Ghebreyesus.
In a presentation to the WTO’s Council for TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) on 2 October, India and South Africa urged WTO members to waive certain TRIPS rules to ensure that intellectual property rights such as patents, industrial designs, copyrights and the protection of undisclosed information do not create barriers to timely access to affordable medical products, including vaccines and drugs, or to further research, the development, manufacture and supply of essential medical products to combat covid-19.
The proposal was considered for discussion at the TRIPS Council meeting on October 15-16, where developed countries, including the United States, the European Union, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Switzerland, rejected the proposal while that the countries of the African group, the least developed countries, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, among other countries, supported the proposal. Countries such as China, Turkey, the Philippines, Colombia sought more information in this regard. The proposal will now be discussed informally among member countries and can be taken up again later before the end of the year.
During the debate in the TRIPS Council, India’s ambassador to the WTO, Brajendra Navnit, argued that the often repeated argument that monopoly rights are necessary to enable inventors to recoup their investment does not apply in the case of the development of health products and technologies necessary to handle the current crisis of covid-19. “We would like to remind members that in a global pandemic in which all countries are affected, we need a global solution. And our waiver proposal represents an open and accelerated global solution to enable seamless collaboration in the development, production and supply of health products and technologies necessary for an effective COVID-19 response, “he added.
Countering the arguments of some members that voluntary licenses are the most appropriate solution to scale-up manufacturing in response to COVID-19, India said that not a single patent holder has shown a willingness to commit to the covid technology access group. -19 (C-TAP) initiative launched under the auspices of WHO.
“In fact, the WHO representative on this Council admitted yesterday (October 15) in response to a question that no pharmaceutical company has committed to sharing its IP (intellectual property) and technologies in the C-TAP pool since its release more than five months ago. Given the refusal of the pharmaceutical industry to routinely offer non-exclusive licenses with global coverage to facilitate global access, clearly the solution to ending the pandemic is not in voluntary licenses, “he said.
Up to 379 civil society organizations including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Access Campaign MSF, People’s Vaccine Alliance have written a letter to WTO members welcoming the proposal from India and South Africa citing the gaps between the supply and demand in access to medical products for covid-19. , including access to diagnostic tests.
“With entire healthcare systems already overwhelmed by COVID-19 and with governments facing an impending economic crisis, the healthcare budgets of many countries simply cannot sustain high-priced COVID-19 medical products. These realities will also hamper production by any competent manufacturer and prevent full freedom to collaborate in the development, production, import and export of necessary medical products, “the letter says.
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