On Wednesday the US government announced its support for a waiver of provisions of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (commonly known as TRIPS) regarding intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines.
“This is a global health crisis and the extraordinary circumstances of the global Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in the service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines.”
This is in response to a request for a waiver tabled by South Africa and India more than nine months ago, which has won the support of 100 mostly developed countries but faced the resistance of the UK, US and EU. As well as predictably the big pharmaceutical companies.
Explained | What the easing of IP norms on Covid vaccines means for India
Updated:
Updated:
May 06, 2021 19:43 IST
The challenge moves to the next level and needs to navigate fineprint consensus building through bureaucratic layers of WTO and member countries’ national governments.
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On May 5, U.S. President Joe Biden had announced that he will support an initiative at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) protection for COVID-19 vaccines. | Photo Credit:
REUTERS
The challenge moves to the next level and needs to navigate fineprint consensus building through bureaucratic layers of WTO and member countries’ national governments.
WTO head welcomes US vaccine move, urges rapid start of negotiations Toggle share menu
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WTO head welcomes US vaccine move, urges rapid start of negotiations
FILE PHOTO: World Trade Organisation (WTO) Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala poses before an interview with Reuters at the WTO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, April 12, 2021. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
06 May 2021 11:49PM Share this content
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GENEVA: The head of the World Trade Organization welcomed on Thursday (May 6) the US move to support waiving patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines and urged WTO members to start negotiations as soon as possible.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told member states that she warmly welcomed US willingness to engage with the proponents of the temporary waiver to the WTO s TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement.
India on Thursday said temporary waiver of certain provisions of intellectual property rights under a WTO agreement would be an important step to enable scaling up of manufacturing and timely availability of affordable COVID-19 vaccines and essential medical products. In view of the COVID-19 crisis, India and South Africa had on October 2 last year proposed in WTO a relaxation in norms of the TRIPS agreement to ensure quick and affordable access to vaccines and medicines for developing countries. India welcomed the US government s support for this initiative. We are hopeful that with a consensus based approach, the waiver can be approved quickly at the WTO. The waiver is an important step for enabling rapid scaling up of manufacture and timely availability of affordable Covid-19 vaccines and essential medical products, the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
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US President Joe Biden s administration on Wednesday announced support for a global waiver on patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines, offering hope to poor nations that have struggled to access the life-saving doses.
India, where the death toll hit a new daily record amid fears the peak is still to come, has been leading the fight within the World Trade Organization (WTO) to allow more drugmakers to manufacture the vaccines - a move pharma giants opposed.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said that while intellectual property rights for businesses are important, Washington supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines in order to end the pandemic.