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The U.S. International Trade Commission is writing a report (requested by USTR) investigating “whether to extend flexibilities under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics.” It is seeking comments from all interested parties on this question and a broad set of sub-questions related to TRIPS flexibilities and access to medicines. The deadline to submit comments is this Friday, March 17.

Here is the announcement, with instructions for commenting.

Here is an excerpt from an earlier press release with particular questions of interest:

” …the Commission will solicit public input during the investigation, including holding a public hearing. The USTR also indicated that input from foreign governments, non-governmental health advocates, and diagnostic and therapeutic manufacturers on the following would be particularly salient:

• How the TRIPS Agreement promotes innovation in and/or limits access to COVID-19 diagnostics and therapeutics;
• Successes and challenges in using existing TRIPS flexibilities;
• The extent to which products not yet on the market, or new uses for existing products, could be affected by an extension of the Ministerial Decision to diagnostics and therapeutics;
• Whether and how existing TRIPS rules and flexibilities can be deployed to improve access to medicines;
• To what extent further clarifications of existing TRIPS flexibilities would be useful in improving access to medicines;
• The relationship between intellectual property protection and corporate research and development expenditures, taking into account other expenditures, such as share buybacks, dividends, and marketing;
• The relevance, if any, of the fact that diagnostic and therapeutic products used with respect to COVID-19 may also have application to other diseases; and
• The location of jobs associated with the manufacturing of diagnostics and therapeutics, including in the United States.”