Category Coronavirus

Injunctive relief after the WTO’s refusal to adopt the India-South Africa COVID-19 Waiver Proposal

[Joshua Sarnoff] As the world confronts the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WTO’s TRIPS Council has rejected the proposal by India and South Africa for the WTO to temporarily waive the intellectual property rights requirements of the TRIPS Agreement in regard to copyrights, industrial designs, patents, and trade secrets. Notwithstanding, countries will continue to exercise TRIPS flexibilities in regard to IPRs that affect their ability to respond to COVID-19.

Conflicting Interests, Competing Perspectives and Policy Incoherence: Covid-19 Highlights the Significance of the UN High-Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines

[Muhammad Abbas] ... The UN High-Level Panel Report on Access to Medicines is a great help in identifying and articulating the nature of the public policy problems faced by countries in response to COVID-19. After analysing the Report and its key recommendations, this paper evaluates the diverging responses to the Report which clearly highlight the conflicting interests of stakeholders. This article concludes that WTO Member States need to revive the spirit of the Doha Declaration which was arguably the best multilateral effort to accommodate the conflicting interests.

Deconstructing Moderna’s COVID-19 Patent Pledge

[Jorge Contreras] On October 8, Cambridge-based biotech company Moderna, Inc., a leading contender in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, publicly pledged not to enforce its COVID-19 related patents against “those making vaccines intended to combat the pandemic.” ...In the high-stakes market for COVID-19 vaccines, it is worth considering the full range of factors that might motivate a private firm to relinquish valuable intellectual property rights for the public good. A better understanding of these factors could help policymakers to secure additional pledges from firms that have not yet volunteered their intellectual property in the fight against the pandemic.

Access to medical supplies and devices — the lesser known story of COVID-19 and medical monopoly

[Salimah Valiani] Discussions around access to potential vaccines for COVID-19 are widespread, particularly in the global South. Much less discussed is the lack of access to already existing medical technology crucial to stemming the spread of the novel coronavirus and assisting its most severely affected victims. The latter is the outcome of the monopoly control of medical technology — a phenomenon stretching at least as long as the monopoly of Big PHARMA — though much less understood.

UNAIDS supports a temporary WTO waiver from certain obligations of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19

[UNAIDS Press Statement] Today, the World Trade Organization’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council meets to consider a proposal presented by the Governments of South Africa and India for a temporary waiver of certain TRIPS obligations in order to facilitate an appropriate response to COVID-19. The aim is to create certainty and clarity, guaranteeing freedom to operate, innovate, procure and scale up manufacturing capacities in essential health technologies at the required scale. The waiver would reduce transaction costs and eliminate key barriers across the research and development cycle and the supply chain for the access and delivery of health technologies to prevent, diagnose and treat COVID-19.

Civil Society ORganizations call for strong support for TRIPS waiver to combat COVID-19

[Kanaga Raja] Nearly 380 civil society organizations have urged Members of the World Trade Organization to strongly support the adoption of a draft decision proposed by India and South Africa for a waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement to combat the worsening COVID-19 pandemic. India and South Africa have submitted a proposal (IP/C/W/669) to the WTO TRIPS Council on a “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19”.

Chilean Congress Supports INDIA and South Africa request at TRIPS COUNCIL

Today the Camara de Diputados ( House of Representatives) of Chile approved a resolution asking the Chilean government to support at the TRIPS council the moratoria of the trips obligations regard to vaccines and therapies for Covid in the terms proposed by India and South Africa. The resolution also request further support on the implementation of C - TAP.

Letter to President Ramaphosa on the Proposed Covid-19 Waiver, by 43 South Africa and India at the WTO, From South Africa-Affiliated Academics, Researchers and Teachers

South Africa, along with India, has adopted a ground-breaking position at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) with the tabling of the proposal for a “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19”. The proposal will be on the agenda of the WTO TRIPS Council on 15-16 October 2020. As a group of academics, researchers and teachers affiliated to various South African institutions, we declare our strong support for this proposal.

South Africa and India’s Proposal to Waive Recognition and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights for COVID-19 Medical Technologies Deserves Universal Support, But Countries Also Have to Take Domestic Measures

On October 2, India and South Africa petitioned the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow all WTO members to bypass granting or enforcement of patents, trade secrets, industrial designs, and copyrights on COVID-19-related drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other medical technologies for the duration of the pandemic – until global ‘herd immunity’ is achieved. The proposed “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19” should be promptly and emphatically supported by governments, international institutions, global health initiatives, and all of civil society—from health workers, to academics, and access-to-medicines activists.

Action at the WTO is needed to accelerate research, development, manufacturing and supply of medical products to combat Covid-19: Proposal from India and South Africa

[Viviana Munoz Tellez] India and South Africa are calling for the WTO Members to agree to waive some of the obligations on protection and enforcement of patents and other intellectual property rights during the Covid-19 pandemic. The South Centre encourages all WTO Members to support the proposal in the upcoming TRIPS Council meeting on 10-11 October 2020 to forward a request to the General Council for the adoption of the decision text.