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05/03/2021 10:00 AM EDT
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US Weighs Loosening Vaccine Patents to Help Global COVID Fight
Voice of America
04 May 2021, 04:05 GMT+10
WASHINGTON - Amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in India and other parts of the world, the United States remains noncommittal on an October 2020 proposal by India and South Africa to waive certain provisions of the World Trade Organization s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
The proposal would loosen patent restrictions so that countries can manufacture generic versions of the coronavirus vaccines. We are working with our global partners to explore pragmatic and effective steps to surge production and equitable distribution of vaccines, a United States Trade Representative (USTR) official told VOA.
Cautioning the global community against vaccine nationalism at this hour of the COVID pandemic, India on Monday asked the developed nations to share technology and allow free movement of critical components and raw material needed for production of vaccines. Speaking at the annual meet of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also underlined the need for a re-look at the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. Countries will have to be open about sharing vaccine-based technologies. The TRIPS agreement will have to be looked at in the context of the pandemic. There cannot be any more vaccine nationalism, countries will have to be flexible about it, she said.
NEW DELHI: Stressing that there cannot be any vaccine nationalism, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday urged nations to share technologies on Covid vaccines amid the pandemic.
She also pitched for examining Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement in the light of the coronavirus pandemic. Countries will have to be open about sharing vaccine-based technologies. The TRIPS agreement will have to be looked at in the context of the pandemic. There cannot be any more vaccine nationalism, countries will have to be flexible about it, she said at the annual meet of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The TRIPS agreement is a legal pact between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). It establishes minimum standards for regulation by national governments of different forms of intellectual property as applied to nationals of other WTO member nations. The agreement has been in force from January 1995.