US rebukes IP wording in WHO’s pandemic resolution
The US has joined consensus on a World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on the global handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, but disassociated itself from the IP and reproductive health services wording within the resolution.
In a statement issued yesterday, May 19, the US said the IP wording sends the “wrong message to innovators who will be essential to the solutions the whole world needs”.
Earlier this week, ministers and officials from member states met for the annual World Health Assembly.
During the meeting, the EU’s draft resolution covering a global COVID-19 response was put to vote. Alongside a review of the WHO’s response to the pandemic, the resolution establishes a voluntary patent pool.
The US didn’t vote against the resolution as a whole, stating that the review would ensure a “complete and transparent understanding of the source of the virus” and the decision-making process for the WHO’s response to the pandemic.
It added: “We must reform the WHO and supporting entities to be fully capable of fulfilling their core and crucial mission moving forward.”
However, the US chose to “disassociate” itself from the references to IP, claiming that the language doesn’t adequately capture all of the “carefully negotiated, and balanced, language” in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) Agreement and the Doha Declaration of 2001.
Under TRIPS, governments can overrule IP and allow for compulsory licensing in a public health emergency.
According to the US, the IP wording “presents an unbalanced and incomplete picture of that language”, and it is concerned that a “misinterpretation of international trade obligations in non-World Trade Organization multilateral fora may negatively affect countries’ abilities to incentivise new drug development and expand access to medicines”.
The US also queried the reference to “existing mechanisms for voluntary pooling … of patents”.
In our coverage yesterday, the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) said: “As the only existing patent pooling mechanism in the public health field, we stand ready to play that role. We look forward to working with the WHO, member states and other key stakeholders to make that possible.”
According to the US, this reference narrows the mandate to voluntary mechanisms existing before the outbreak, not new or proposed mechanisms created in response to the pandemic.
“It is critical that any such voluntary mechanisms as applied to COVID-19 related technologies be narrowly tailored in scope and duration to the medical needs of the current crisis, and that the World Intellectual Property Organization, as the UN agency with technical expertise on IP issues, play an appropriate role in their operation and evolution,” said the US.
In addition to rejecting the IP provisions, the US distanced itself from the references to sexual and reproductive health, stating that it “believes in legal protections for the unborn” and couldn’t accept the idea of an international right to abortion.
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