US, EU, India and South Africa reach COVID waiver ‘compromise’
The US, EU, India and South Africa have reached an undisclosed agreement related to the stonewalled COVID-19 vaccine IP waiver.
In a short announcement published Wednesday, March 16, World Trade Organisation (WTO) director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said that she “warmly welcomed” the breakthrough agreement between the four WTO member countries.
Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that particulars of the compromised waiver “still need to be finalised”, including whether the patent waiver length would be three or five years. They also said that the waiver would apply only to patents for the COVID-19 vaccines rather than the associated technologies.
“This is a major step forward and this compromise is the result of many long and difficult hours of negotiations. But we are not there yet. We have more work to do to ensure that we have the support of the entire WTO Membership,” the Director-General said.
She also stressed that more work would be required to bring the discussion to the full 164 remaining member states that would be acquired to agree to a temporary waiving of rade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreements.
Okonjo-Iweala added: “In the WTO we decide by consensus, and this has not yet been achieved. My team and I have been working hard for the past three months and we are ready to roll up our sleeves again to work together with the TRIPS Council Chair Ambassador Lansana Gberie (Sierra Leone) to bring about a full agreement as quickly as possible. We are grateful to the four Members for the difficult work they have undertaken so far.”
This announcement sparked responses from bodies opposed to the waiver. The US Chamber of Commerce published a statement from vice president Patrick Kilbride calling the proposal “fundamentally misguided” by not addressing the “last mile” vaccine delivery problem in low and middle-income countries.
“[The proposal] will erode the ability of innovative companies to develop the cure for the next pandemic or global health threat,” said Kilbride.
Currently, governments in low and middle-income countries have had the rollout of their vaccines delayed due in part to mounting storage, logistical and supply chain constraints.
Some vaccines have to be stored at extremely low temperatures, which has made last-mile transportation and distribution in warm climates challenging.
Additionally, the global supply chain crisis resulting from the pandemic has also delayed the delivery of vaccines to countries that need them.
Kilbride added: “Governments and international organisations should avoid political distractions and more quickly achieve comprehensive global vaccination against COVID-19, by focusing on real, practical ongoing issues with last-mile distribution.
“IP waiver proposals distract from the real issues preventing more shots in arms such as logistical hurdles, supply chain bottlenecks, and vaccine hesitancy.”
Waiving rights
The proposal to waive certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) framework for COVID-19 vaccines was first posed to the WTO by India and South Africa in early 2021.
While several countries, including the US, China and France, threw their support behind the idea, the plan will require a unanimous WTO member vote to pass. Several countries including Switzerland and Japan remain opposed to the idea, which has delayed the proposal from advancing further.
Many IP lawyers have voiced concerns that allowing the waiving of IP rights related to the vaccines could set a precedent for the state to overrule IP rights and could potentially threaten the current agreements.
Speaking to this, Kilbride concluded: “Worse yet, dismantling IP rights threatens the licensing arrangements that are enabling rapid global production and technology transfer. Any WTO action undermining IP will harm multiple U.S. industries, who are global leaders in their fields, and who depend on IP protections. Any agreement of this kind would bargain away US competitiveness.”
Kilbride echoes the sentiment the US Chamber of Commerce published last month in its latest International IP Index, a report measuring the quality of global IP systems.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox.
